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Article: How old is humanity, and where did 'Homo sapiens' come from? ; The big question
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- July 19, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2007 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Why are we asking this question now?
A new study was published yesterday that purports to "prove" the
theory that humans evolved from a single origin somewhere in sub-
Saharan Africa. It seems to answer two of the biggest questions in
human evolution - where we came from and when we began to spread
across the world. The answer appears to be that we came out of
Africa about 55,000 years ago. The study supports the idea that we
derive from an ancestral stock of people who had already been living
in Africa as an independent species for about 150,000 years before
some began the global migration that led to man's dominance of the
planet.
Who did this latest study and what did it involve?
The ...