Expert: John Shea - 4/28/2008

Question
My junior high school students are studying human evolution and we have one question.  On this National Geographic site:

https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html

they say that humans left Africa 60,000 years ago.  But didn't Homo erectus leave Africa more than 500,000 years ago?  If so, and the humans they mention are modern humans, what happened to erectus?

Thanks for any help that you can provide.

Go Illini!

Regards,

Bill Meyer
Mokena Junior High School

Answer
Dear Bill
The African Homo erectus populations who remained in Africa eventually evolved into Homo sapiens -probably around 200,000 years ago -based on our findings from Omo Kibish and the fossils from Middle Awash (both in Ethiopia) and at other sites on the Continent.
These African Homo sapiens spread out of Africa permanently around 60,000 years ago, replacing Neandertals and any late-surviving Homo erectus populations that remained in Asia.
This is more-or-less the consensus view in paleoanthropology nowadays.
For a good reference, look at the book The Last Human.
Cheers,
John Shea