Question

Why are fossils discovered from herto so important? How does this evidence influence your conclusions in question 2?

Question 2 was : what recent evidence supports a partial replacement model for African origin and later dispersal of modern humans? Do you find this evidence convincing? Why or why not? Can you propose an alternative model that has better data to support it?

Answer 1

From Herto in Ethiopia, new fossils were found and these are considered as the are the oldest known modern human fossils, at 160,000 yrs. Thus they are important. They are assigned as a new subspecies, Homo sapiens idaltu,

It can be a partial replacement model for African origin and later dispersal of modern humans. These skull fossils are anatomically and chronologically intermediate between older archaic humans and more recent fully modern humans.

Their age and anatomy provide the strong evidence for the emergence of modern humans from Africa. Also it provides the information against mutiregional theory that modern humans evolved in many places around the world.