Mackenzie Wagner

Anth1010
Replacement vs Multi-regional

The focus on how Homo sapiens originated is an eminently debated topic. Over a 100,000 years
ago, the World had a fairly large amount of diversity between the Homo genus. However, around
30,000 years ago this variation among the genus had almost abruptly faded, and there appeared to be
nothing but what is now considered the anatomically and behaviorally modern form of humans. There
are two main theories as to how this abrupt change could have happened: one that proposes a single
origin, otherwise known as the replacement model, and one that suggests a multi-regional continuity.
The replacement model proposes that Homo erectus migrated out of Africa. After this
occurrence, the different populations in the geographical regions became reproductively isolated from
each other and the process of speciation began to take place. The population that would eventually arise
as Homo sapien had largely remained in Africa for this evolutionary process.
This evidence is supported by examining mitochondrial DNA of populations of modern
humans, which suggests a shared ancestry between us all. This particular kind of DNA can only be
transferred from mother to child, and a genetic outline has been constructed to show genetic history of
modern humans. It has been suggested that any region where modern humans have resided the longest
should appear to have more genetic diversity. What has been shown using the evidence stated is that
Africa has the largest genetic diversity out of all the regions in the world.
Modern humans began to migrate out of Africa and into Europe and Asia. During this time, no
interbreeding between the different species that were now coexisting occurred and modern humans
began to thrive while other species, such as Neanderthals, started to dwindle. There are many theories
as to how this extinction took place, some hypotheses include competitive exclusion, an inability to

adapt to recent changes in the environment and climate, or infringing on the modern humans that now
were populated in the areas.
The problem with the Replacement model is that not everyone agrees that similar genetic traits
equates to recent common ancestry. Some argue that similar genetic traits between different regions
actually points to a constant gene flow between populations.
In contrast, the Multi-regional model suggests that 1.8 million years ago Homo erectus appears
in the fossil records in Africa. However, similar fossils had also been found in other areas of the world
dating to a fairly comparable time period. This evidence proposes that the origin of Homo sapiens did
not happen in just Africa, as the Replacement Model suggests. Instead, Homo Erectus is thought to
have dispersed out of Africa and into other regions, and slowly evolved into modern humans. This idea
requires there to have been some level of gene flow between all of the separated populations that would
prevent each group from speciation, once Homo erectus had migrated into other regions.
This model holds the idea that Natural Selection occurred in each of the different regions, and
populations within these regions, after dispersal. This survival perk is what eventually caused the
characteristic diversity between populations, and eventually caused the variation in races.
Instead of Modern Humans replacing Neanderthals completely, the Multi-regional Model
suggests that there may have been interbreeding between the two. The discovery of the Lapedo child is
a good example to support this claim. Skeletal remains of a young child dated to be about 23,00-20,000
years old showed not only modern human characteristics, but also resembled a Neanderthal in much of
the skeleton's build. This new evidence was controversial to the idea that Neanderthals had died out
around 30,000-28,000 years ago. The anthropologist that analyzed the remains, Erik Trinkaus, saw this
evidence and made a conclusion that Neanderthals and modern humans must have been coexisting at
this time, and suggested that the two were interbreeding.
The problem with the Multi-regional model is that the constant gene flow requirements of the
model necessitates that it occurs over an immense amount of region. Early Homo populations were

fairly sparse and would make the constant gene flow difficult. If there were no gene flow, evolution in
early Homo sapiens would have had to be interchangeable between three different regions. The
differences in regions would cause this to be fairly unlikely.
Both models have anatomical, archeological, and genetic evidence to back them up, however, it
appears that the stronger evidence as of today supports that the evolution of modern humans is a fairly
recent phenomenon, and the current best speculation as of how modern humans originated is the
replacement model. The neurological and cultural evolution of Homo sapien sapiens has proven to be
extraordinarily favorable at the expense of earlier Homo species.

Citations
Becoming Human. PBS Distribution, 2010. Film.
O'Neal, Dennis. "Evolution of Modern Humans: Early Modern Homo Sapiens." Evolution of Modern
Humans: Early Modern Homo Sapiens. Web. 30 Apr. 2015.
<http://anthro.palomar.edu/homo2/mod_homo_4.htm>.
Zimmer, Carl. Smithsonian Intimate Guide to Human Origins. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian ;, 2005.
Print.