title: Testing modern human out-of-Africa dispersal models and implications for modern human origins.
abstract: The modern human expansion process out of Africa has important implications for understanding the genetic and phenotypic structure of extant populations. While intensely debated, the primary hypotheses focus on either a single dispersal or multiple dispersals out of the continent. Here, we use the human fossil record from Africa and the Levant, as well as an exceptionally large dataset of Holocene human crania sampled from Asia, to model ancestor-descendant relationships along hypothetical dispersal routes. We test the spatial and temporal predictions of competing out-of-Africa models by assessing the correlation of geographical distances between populations and measures of population differentiation derived from quantitative cranial phenotype data. Our results support a model in which extant Australo-Melanesians are descendants of an initial dispersal out of Africa by early anatomically modern humans, while all other populations are descendants of a later migration wave. Our results have implications for understanding the complexity of modern human origins and diversity.
authors.affiliation: Paleoanthropology, Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Rümelinstraße 23, D-72070 Tübingen, Germany. Electronic address: hugo.reyes-centeno@uni-tuebingen.de.
authors.forename: Hugo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Reyes-Centeno
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, The Ohio State University, 174 W. 18th Ave., 43210 Columbus, OH, USA; Instituto de Investigaciones Arqueológicas y Museo, Universidad Católica del Norte, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hubbe
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Kitasato University School of Medicine, 1-15-1 Kitasato, Minami-ku, 252-0374 Sagamihara, Japan.
authors.forename: Tsunehiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hanihara
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, SW7 5BD London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Stringer
authors.affiliation: Paleoanthropology, Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Rümelinstraße 23, D-72070 Tübingen, Germany; Center for Advanced Studies, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Rümelinstraße 23, D-72070 Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Katerina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Harvati
mesh_terms: D000349:Africa; D001208:Asia; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002508:Cephalometry; D005580:Fossils / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005843:Geography; D006801:Humans; D008877:Middle East; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012886:Skull / Q000033:anatomy & histology*
keywords: Anatomically modern humans; Anthropogeny; Quantitative genetics