HISTORY OF HOMO SAPIENS
The remains of the oldest modern Homo sapiens were first located in Africa about 200,000 years ago. The latter was later found in South West of Asia 100,000 years ago and in Old World nearly between 40,000-60,000 years ago. In the African continent, the remains of Homo sapiens were located at Herto, the Ethiopia’s Great Rift Valley, and later to the south of Omo Kibish, where further skulls of Homo sapiens were found, making them the oldest recognizable members of the human species. The remains of the earliest Homo sapiens found in Africa had traits similar to those of the modern man, like a high forehead, reduced skull size, a chin, small face, and the postcranial bones identical to those of modern man. Other remains of the early Homo sapiens were found in Klasies River Mouth Cave, in South of Africa over 90,000 years ago.
The anatomical dispersion of Home Erectus from Africa to other parts of the world like Asia and Europe and southwest of Asia and Eurasia started about ca. 50-55 ka. (Over 55,000 years ago). Upon leaving Africa, a group of Homo sapiens was the first to colonize the modern-day Australia, who entered the country through South East of Asia. The two groups of Homo sapiens in Australia are said to be descendants of Homo erectus from Indonesia, while the other group of the human population to colonize Australia was the evolutionary descendants of Homo erectus from China. Remains of Homo sapiens are found in Zhoukoudian cave in china, which indicates the presence of Homo sapiens in Asia. The latter depicts the modern man’s facial traits, like a reduced face, round and reduced skull size, and flat faces, resembling many Asians in the contemporary world. Dolni Vestonice is an archeological site in the Czech Republic where remains of Homo sapiens were found over 35,000 years ago, indicating the presence of Homo sapiens in Europe. Unlike the remains found in Africa and Asia, the skull of Homo sapiens in Europe depicts a narrow nasal opening, and a tall forehead, unlike those found in Africa and Asia.
From Africa to Asia, Homo sapiens used the Coastal route through India and the South East of Asia. Paleo Indians are the modern Homo sapiens first to enter America. They entered America from Asia through the Beringia land bridge route between Siberia and Alaska in over 23,000 years ago. In northern Asia, the Homo sapiens used a route through Siberia to avoid Gobi’s harsh desert climate. However, the presence of Denisova Cave, an archeological site in Russia and the Baishiya Karst archeological cave in China, depicts the route followed by Homo sapiens on their way to Asia from Africa. During the movement of Homo sapiens from Africa to other parts of the world like America, Asia, and Australia, the sea levels were low during the Pleistocene ice age, creating natural ice bridges from where people would walk through from Asia to Indonesia. Besides, the geographical distance between Guinea (Africa) Australia (Europe) and Tasmania (Asia) was only 40 miles of seawater. In addition to this, the presence of human Remains in Mungo man, Australia over 40,000 years ago, and the Kow swamp, which existed over 30,000 years ago, show that Homo sapiens used boats to cross narrow seas from Africa to the other parts of the world.