The Origin of Modern Humans
Abstract
In the fossil record of the genus Homo, the earlier the fossils the less human they look, until the Lower Pleistocene ones merge with the apelike Australopithecus. However, there is now a controversy over the position of the Middle Pleistocene representatives: are there more than one species, of which only one is our ancestor, or are they all the one species, whose geographic races gave rise to their modern local counterparts? These are the replacement and regional continuity models of human evolution. The evidence, as interpreted in this review, appears to support the replacement hypothesis: our species arose in Africa between 100 000 and 200 000 years ago and, as it spread around the world, replaced those which had formerly lived in Europe and Asia.
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The transition from Middle Pleistocene hominins to modern humans was marked by these facial changes and gracilisation of the face.
“The transition from MP hominins to modern humans was marked by these changes and gracilisation of the face 51,52”
From The evolutionary history of the human face (2019) · cites this paper as [51]
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The evolutionary history of the human face
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- Authors
- Groves, C. P.
- Affiliations
- Australian National University (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Groves, Colin P.
- ORCID
- Groves, Colin P.
- Venue
- Interdisciplinary Science Reviews
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 1994-03
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 23-34
- ISSN
- 0308-0188 (ISSN-L)
- 1743-2790
- OpenAlex
- W1995726121
- Cited by
- 15
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 7.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Interdisciplinary Science Reviews (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Evolution and Paleontology Studies
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
- Keywords
- modern human origins, Homo, replacement hypothesis, Middle Pleistocene hominins, Australopithecus, human evolution, regional variation, hominin fossil record, African origin of humans
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