Out of Africa Theory Changed

Live Science

An analysis of a 1.5 million-year-old vertebra from a human relative living in what is now Israel suggests that ancient humans dispersed out of Africa in multiple waves.

Transcript

00:00 there is a continuous debate about the nature of out-of-Africa migration.

00:05 Was this a one-time event or did it take place on multiple occasions?

00:09 The site of Ubedia is found close to the southern edge of the Sea of Galilee,

00:22 near Kibbutz Beidzera,

00:23 and is one of the earliest prehistoric sites to be found outside of Africa,

00:27 and dates to around 1.5 million years ago.

00:31 The only other site that predates Ubedia is Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia,

00:36 which dates to around 1.8 million years ago.

00:40 Ubedia was discovered and excavated in the early 60s

00:45 by many of the famous Israeli prehistorians

00:48 who uncovered rich stone tools assemblages that were used by early humans,

00:53 together with numerous animal bones,

00:55 some of which went extinct long time ago, like saber-toothed cats and mammoths,

00:59 while others are not usually associated with Israel,

01:03 such as hippos, rhinos, and big crocodiles.

01:06 In 2018, Miriam Bellemaker won a National Science Foundation grant

01:11 to study the ancient climate and to accurately date the site.

01:16 While studying animal bones from the site,

01:18 she came across a vertebra with human-like feature

01:21 that was actually excavated in 1966.

01:25 Together with Professor Elabin, we studied the vertebra

01:28 and came up with some new and important conclusions.

01:32 First, it is a fossilized early human bone that belonged to a child.

01:37 We know so because of the shape of the vertebra and the fact that it is incomplete,

01:42 meaning that it did not finish its growing process.

01:47 We estimate that had it reached adulthood,

01:48 this individual would be around 1.8 meters tall and weigh about 19 kilograms.

01:56 These numbers are similar to some of the large-bodied hominins

01:59 that are found in Africa in the similar time period,

02:05 but are very different from the small-bodied hominins that we found in Georgia.

02:10 Second, he will witness two distinct human species at the same time period,

02:16 which is known as the lower Pleistocene outside of Africa.

02:20 We know that the earliest stages of human evolution took place in Africa,

02:26 based on the fossil record and by comparing DNA data from apes and humans.

02:31 However, over the years, there is a continuous debate

02:35 about the nature of out-of-Africa migration.

02:38 Was this a one-time event or did it take place on multiple occasions?

02:43 And who were the people who migrated out of Africa?

02:47 Our current study indicates that early hominins migrated at least twice,

02:52 and in two distinct ways.

02:54 This is because the people of Dmanisi are different in size and shape from those in Obadiah.

03:00 Moreover, Dr. Omri Barzilai, who studied the stone artifacts from both sides,

03:05 conclude that the stone manufacturing techniques,

03:09 as well as the stone tools themselves, are different.

03:13 Professor Biryam Belmecker concludes that the climate,

03:15 as well as the animals, are also different in both sides.

03:20 Thus, with each migration waves came new and different type of hominins,

03:27 with their own stone making traditions,

03:29 which may indicate maybe about their cognitive abilities

03:34 and the different preferences of their ecological niche inhabitants.

03:39 Thank you for listening and have a great day.

03:42 [music]

03:45 [silence]

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