Is Africa really the "Homeland" ? Why do people see Africa as the birth place for mankind ?

Africa is where the earliest human and hominid remains have been found.

I have heard this story, too, but I heard that the scientists have traced all of mankind back to one woman in Africa. I would have to see that research to believe it. Not that it is impossible, but totally impossible to substantiate. Who, by the way, is claiming this? I would like to know.

It’s true. When it comes down to it, we are all from Africa. The earliest hominid, Australopithecus afarensis (often referred to as Lucy), was found in Ethiopia. We are descendants of apes and evolved from them. The earliest humans would have had to walk out of Africa, which they did during a mini ice age when the ground was frozen.

As far as I know, there is absolutely no way to trace mankind back to a single person. There is substantial evidence that humanity originated in Africa. The idea that humanity has been traced to two people may be (just my immediate thoughts) an over-inflation of the importance of the oldest human skeletons found as the founders of humanity, not just as a member of humanity.

As for the “tracing all of mankind to a single woman” ... I know bits and pieces of this.

We’ve all heard of DNA tracing, in which samples from a single individual (we’ll say “human”, in this case) can be compared to the DNA of a known sample to see if there’s a match. That’s comparing a DNA source to another sample to see “did this sample come from this individual.”

There is another type of DNA testing (which I also don’t fully understand, but you can look up) which tests whether a sample “was descended from” the person whose DNA is in another sample. That’s called mitochondrial DNA testing. Unfortunately, mitochondrial DNA is only passed on from mother to offspring, so it’s only possible to test lines backward from mother to mother.

Apparently, all human DNA (on Earth, anyway – assuming all humans reside on Earth) can be traced back using mitochondrial DNA back to the earliest known samples of human DNA… in Africa.

The Genographic Project has some pretty good explanations of the science and the reasons that scientists think everyone alive now has one ancestral mother way way way back there…

Evolutionary changes in DNA markers show that the earliest humans were in Africa and migrated in two branches into Asia and into Europe.

The “tracing back” can be done to a Mitochondrial Eve.
In Africa ALL humanoids came from millions of years ago not, the last five centuries.

It’s currently the most popularly-held theory that humans evolved in Africa, but there is a competing theory — also valid, just not as popular — that humans evolved in several places simultaneously (including the Yellow River and the Tigris-Euphrates Rivers). It’s not by any means a certainty that we all evolved from a common anthropoid ancestor in Africa.

Our mtDNA has been traced all the way back to Africa. These aren’t just “stories” there is strong evidence. I suggest you take an anthropology class when you’re in college. It satisfies a science in the GE section as well as your curiosity of our very distant past.

Follow this on YouTube. It’s a video Dr. Erin Browder recommended I watched. She is a Biological Anthropologist professor by day. Here it is, The Real Eve

First off, mtDNA (Mitochondrial DNA) is special in the sense that it is unique and passed down only through the women, although men carry the mtDNA, we cannot pass this on. Furthermore everyone is correct above, the earliest remaines are found in Africa. I’ll try and sum this up in a elementary fashion.

Australopithecus Afarensis arrives in Africa. (All of this during the ice-age *see ice-age geography for what earth might have looked like back then) Then that evolves into bigger more muscular type of Australopith. Then scientist suggest from a route leading upper north east Africa some humans made there way out. Eventually emerging into Europe, where neanderthal appears. They thrive, but at the same time, the first modern humans are traveling to Malaysia as well as Australia. I’m not familiar with the 2 women theory your friend suggests.

Really I would suggest taking a course in college. Plenty of people will feed you plenty of bologna but a college education from people actually in the field, is the best way to go about learning this stuff.

For fun, look up, “Dikkika Baby, Taung Child, Lucy Australopith ”

Pangaea anyone?

@judochop Well Pangaea and strips of really thick ice sheets that stretch out through miles :D

Here’s an article about how the Human Genome Project proves that we are all basically descendant from Africa.
I just googled it. I am sure there are better articles out there, this is just the first I found.

I bought my dad a DNA testing kit from Nat’l Geographic for Christmas last year and it’s pretty cool stuff. The folks at the human genome project were able to figure out on which wave my dad’s ancestor’s left Africa and the route they took across Europe. And they will continue to update as more data is collected.

@fundevogel That’s something I want to do.

There may not be a clear evidence on where the first man came from. With advancing technology maybe one day we’d be able to all trace our ancestors back to their origin and that is something I am sure most people would love to know. A lot is not known about Africa and people but I guess all those are changing through and people are providing more answers about Africa