Morgan McKellar Research paper.

"Where do we come from?" Is the question that has always plagued

mankind. It's a question that we strive to answer in our day to day lives. It's
the puzzle we are trying to complete. These pieces come from scientists that
continuously disagree on every new discovery, and every new idea.
Scientists have battled the question; "Where do we come from?" for ages.
They have come to a semi-agreement of two different models. These are the
"Regional Continuity" model and the "Replacement" model.
The "Regional Continuity" or "Multi-regional" model was created by
Milford H. Wolpoff, Alan Thorne, and Xinzhi Wu in 1984. The model of
"Regional Continuity" is that modern humans evolved independently in local
regions of the old world. The idea is that there were homo erectus in Asia,
Africa, and Europe; and they evolved there in their countries. There has been
many debates over if this is considered true or not.
With the "Regional Continuity" there are certain things that have to be
left out. The idea that Africa has the oldest fossils is one of them. There also
had to be major gene flow between the homo erectus, and the "then"
modern humans. With the gene flow it slowly killed off the Homo erectus
until there was only modern humans.
If we think about the distances and how each nationality looks, we can
assume there was some gene flow through out each of the continents. If we
look at the Inuit people they have more Asian features than anything, we can

assume that they came from Asia via the land bridge.{8} South American's
have more prominent features like those from Africa. It would be the closest
in approximation for that theory to make sense. Along with the idea that we
all look different enough that it makes more sense that we started in our own
countries. Asian skulls found in Tianyuanm and in Indonesia aging at around
40,000 to 26,000 have been known to be smaller along with the few bodies
that have been found. If we look at the bodies that have been found in Asia
they are smaller than compared to African and European fossils. Modern
Asians have a smaller stature compared to current modern day humans.
Then there is Europe and Africa which look stockier compared to Asians. If we
all evolved from Africa we would have closer similarities than what we have
now. We have different "races" and different looks in our bodies compared to
each other. Yes, in general they may have looked different back then, but we
can assume that there were differences in races then as we have them now.
{12}
The other model is "Replacement" or the "Out of Africa" model{3}.
This model states that everything happened in Africa and they the migrated
around the world. The theory first started with Darwin's idea that everyone
had a common ancestor that started in Africa. In 2001 Stinger{7} and
Andrew added more to the model that, there may have been interbreeding,
but it wasn't common.

To help support that theory, think about the fossils, from where they
were found and how old they were{5). The first fossil was "Lucy" found in
Ethiopia and was dated back to 3.2 million years ago{4}. After "Lucy" there
was LD-350-1{1} which was also found in Ethiopia, was dated at 2.8 million
years ago.{6} These fossils were found in Africa along with many others. The
"Out of Africa" model is supported by most of the worlds fossils being found
in Africa. {2}
A question that is asked frequently is "What happened to the
Neanderthals?" The idea that they interbred with the homo sapiens and
become one with modern humans is entirely possible. If a Neanderthal was
worried about his fitness then he would find the closest thing that would
resemble himself. A Neanderthal looks as close to a modern human as
anything could be. It creates the final link if we were able to find that middle
species.{9} In a study they compared the DNA of 846 people with nonAfrican heritage, the DNA of 176 native Africans, and the DNA of a
Neanderthal. They found that there were several variants in the DNA that
matched the Neanderthals. It showed that certain diseases were linked to
the Neanderthals such as: Diabetes type 2, Crohn's disease, and lupus. {10}
Another idea of how the Neanderthals became extinct is the idea that
once homo sapiens met the Neanderthals they may not have gotten along.
"St. Csaire 1 Neanderthal skeleton" was a skeleton that showed damage to
the skull. There was a healed fracture that was caused from a sharp

instrument cutting the skull. This could have been from a modern human
becoming violent with a stranger. {11}
I think it could easily be a mixture of both theory with the evidence
provided. Yes, the oldest fossils are found in Africa, and the Mitochondrial
DNA is older in African descendants, but it could be that they have found all
these fossils because they know that's where they will find something. They
know that that was where "Lucy" was found and figure to continue to look.
There aren't many articles of fragments found in Europe or in Asia as often
because the search has not continued that far.
References:
1.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/03/150304-homo-

habilis-evolution-fossil-jaw-ethiopia-olduvai-gorge/ (national geographic)

Stating where a newly discovered fossil had been found in march 2015. New
jaw bone
2.

http://www.vocativ.com/culture/science/oldest-human-fossil/ List of

fossils and ages

3.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recent_African_origin_of_modern_humans

Out of Africa information

4.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/03/10/homo-m10.html

Information on oldest fossils

5.

http://www.history.com/news/famed-lucy-fossils-discovered-in-ethiopia-

40-years-ago Lucy information

6.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_human_evolution_fossils List of

human fossils

7.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Stringer Stringer information

8.

http://humanorigins.si.edu/research/asian-research/earliest-humans-

china Asian fossils.

9.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal Information on Neanderthals

and interspecies breeding.

10.

http://www.sci-news.com/othersciences/anthropology/science-

neanderthal-genes-modern-human-dna-01734.html Neanderthal DNA in

modern humans
11.

http://www.pnas.org/content/99/9/6444 "Violence in "Neanderthals"

12. http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34531861 News article