Following the evolution of Homo sapiens across Africa using a uniparental genetic guide

Abstract

The origin and evolution of modern humans in Africa has reached a multidisciplinary consensus but the age and regions where it originated and evolved are current topics of discussion. In this study I put forward an integrative model guided by the phylogeny and phylogeography of mitochondrial DNA (and Y-chromosome) haplogroups. I propose an early origin of modern humans in northwest Africa in a temporal window of 257-345 thousand years ago. A first population split in central Africa around 175-288 thousand years ago. A subsequent northward spread with additional population subdivisions during a long statistical interval that culminated in a first successful out of Africa migration around 130 thousand years ago. A population constriction in southwest Asia motivated an early return to Africa between 79 and 107 thousand years ago. This ample Eurasian-ebb to Africa, detected by mitochondrial haplogroup L3 and Y-chromosome haplogroup E preceded other later and geographically more limited Eurasian backflows. The archaeological and fossil finds that could be coetaneous to this molecular journey have been integrated into this interdisciplinary model.