14. When did ''H.sapiens'' move out of Africa and begin to spread across Asia and Europe?

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The Out of Africa hypothesis states that modern Homo Sapiens developed in a small, relatively isolated population of earlier hominids and that then spread out through Africa and onwards. The scientist that worked on this hypotheses used molecular biology to approximate the time that the hominids left Africa. They utilized the data from the diversity and mutation rate of nuclear DNA and mitochondrial DNA. Using this technique, they estimated that the H. Sapiens Diverged from a common ancestor in Africa about 200,000 years ago and At about 100,000 BC, H. Sapiens was able to be found throughout the entire habitable world. This timeframe is too short for the Multiregional Hypothesis, a competing theory. The hypothesis states that H. Sapiens evolved in parallel from earlier Hominids that had spread to Africa, Europe, and Asia with some genetic intermixing.

William Urdahl

Source: “Physical Origins of Humans.” Origins. Comp. Rosie Beniretto. Ed. Ganesa Collins. Houston, Texas: St. Johns School, 2015-2016. Physical origins of Humans 37-38. Print.

Source: http://archaeology.about.com/cs/glossary/g/multiregional.htm

Additional information: http://archaeology.about.com/od/oterms/g/outofafrica.htm

picture from: http://preservedremains.wikispaces.com/Out+of+Africa+Theory