Human population has been estimated to have been around five million people 10,000 years ago. Recent studies from the Center for Genome Research and others such as Ambrose suggest a small group of perhaps 10,000 people could have left Africa between 50-100,000 years ago and populated the entire planet. *although i already posted this^^^ http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/ctl/100k.html
Cool pic of Africa! You know, I have more fun down at the truck stop with this line of discussion, for some reason, it sparks a pretty lively debate with the teamsters I know! I believe Africa is the birthplace of the human experiment, and the genome project is bearing that out. I think it's cool that I maybe distantly related to the little guy from 'The Gods Must Be Crazy', he's a favorite cinematic character of mine.
Greetings, Yes, that is the current leading hypothesis. I have a very good friend who is an Anthropology researcher in California, and aside from the incredibly interesting research she does, we get many opportunities to discuss evolution and the origins of humanity. Evidence keeps pouring in, validating this hypothesis. I especially like it, on a personal level, because it can be a peice of factual information we can explore to help assist with furthing harminous human relations. Yours Truly, Sam_Spade
As stated above, it's the commonly accepted hypothesis today, edging out the idea that the Middle East was the cradle of humanity. If nothing else though, a mitochondrial DNA analysis performed several years ago traced the genetic Eve- a woman from whom all living humans today are descended- to Africa.
I actually had the chance to go to Africa a couple years ago and saw where they found Australopithecus among other fossils . It's called Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania (or was it Kenya? Pretty sure Tanzania) Edit: Sorry for the size. Thought I reduced them more than that Here are some pics to enjoy Thougth I'd throw in a couple Kilimanjaro pics from the air also.
It seems like man evolved differently throught the world to adapt everywhere, it is very viable that the dawn of man started at different time periods across the globe, and may be a big reason why the races of people are so different.
Yea I have something like 400 photos of our 3 week trip to Kenya and Tanzania plus a little island off of Tanzania called Zanzibar which was fucking gorgeous.