Sex with Other Human Species Might Have Been Secret of Homo Sapiens’s Success
Extra Credit Opportunity for US classes:
Read this article and type a single page summary and response. Worth 10 pts extra credit towards your next exam. Due by Friday, 4/26.
In this article, it talked about the debate between scientists about how Homo sapiens originated and came to be the last human species standing. One theory that emerged was this; anatomically modern humans arose in Africa and spread out across the rest of the Old World, completely replacing the existing archaic groups. A couple thought occur when thinking about how this happened. First, they thought the invaders killed off the natives they encountered. They then thought maybe the natives out-competed strangers on their own turf. The last thought that occurred was simple but very fathomable. It was simply that the natives reproduced at a fast rate. Nevertheless, the newcomers seemed to have eliminated their competitors without interbreeding with them. These thought have be seen to be true for a long time but only recently have been shot down as false. The reason that those thought were proven to be wrong was better technology. More advanced technology has allowed scientists to prove that people today carry DNA inherited from Neanderthals and other archaic humans, revealing that early H. sapiens mated with these other species and produced fertile offspring who were able to hand this genetic legacy down through thousands of generations. In the 1980s, when the debate over the rise of H. sapiens was heating up. anthropological agreed that Homo erectus arose in Africa some two million years ago and began spreading out of that continent and into other regions of the Old World. Even with this information, people still disagreed on how the ancestors of H. sapiens transitioned to our modern form. Some people argued that the transformation occurred gradually among archaic populations wherever they lived because of a combination of migration and mating that allowed beneficial modern traits to spread among all these populations.
Sam Matsil
ReplyDeleteIn this article, it talked about the debate between scientists about how Homo sapiens originated and came to be the last human species standing. One theory that emerged was this; anatomically modern humans arose in Africa and spread out across the rest of the Old World, completely replacing the existing archaic groups. A couple thought occur when thinking about how this happened. First, they thought the invaders killed off the natives they encountered. They then thought maybe the natives out-competed strangers on their own turf. The last thought that occurred was simple but very fathomable. It was simply that the natives reproduced at a fast rate. Nevertheless, the newcomers seemed to have eliminated their competitors without interbreeding with them.
These thought have be seen to be true for a long time but only recently have been shot down as false. The reason that those thought were proven to be wrong was better technology. More advanced technology has allowed scientists to prove that people today carry DNA inherited from Neanderthals and other archaic humans, revealing that early H. sapiens mated with these other species and produced fertile offspring who were able to hand this genetic legacy down through thousands of generations.
In the 1980s, when the debate over the rise of H. sapiens was heating up. anthropological agreed that Homo erectus arose in Africa some two million years ago and began spreading out of that continent and into other regions of the Old World. Even with this information, people still disagreed on how the ancestors of H. sapiens transitioned to our modern form. Some people argued that the transformation occurred gradually among archaic populations wherever they lived because of a combination of migration and mating that allowed beneficial modern traits to spread among all these populations.