← Trends in human evolution
7 Out of Africa vs Multiregional: comparing the hypotheses
Every year's Question Three is built around dispersal, and the strongest answers explicitly compare BOTH hypotheses even when only one is named in the question — this deserves more than a single flashcard.| Out of Africa (replacement) | Multiregional | |
|---|---|---|
| Where modern humans arose | Once, in Africa, ~200,000 years ago | In parallel, across several regions where H. erectus already lived |
| What happened to other populations | Largely replaced as modern humans migrated out | Evolved locally into modern humans, linked by ongoing gene flow |
| Genetic diversity pattern predicted | Highest in Africa, declining with distance (serial founder effect) | No strong single-origin diversity gradient expected |
| Modern consensus | Strongly favoured, WITH a documented small amount of interbreeding (Neanderthal/Denisovan admixture) | Mostly rejected as the primary model, though gene flow clearly did occur |
Stating the modern nuanced consensus — "Out of Africa, with some admixture" — rather than picking one hypothesis as if it were purely correct, is exactly the kind of precision that reaches Excellence.
✕Presenting Out of Africa as leaving no trace of other hominins at all
A pure "replacement" answer ignores the real genetic evidence: small but measurable amounts of Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA persist in many modern human genomes, showing interbreeding occurred even though Out of Africa is the dominant model. State this nuance explicitly rather than an all-or-nothing version of either hypothesis.A fast check for a dispersal-hypothesis answer
- Have I named BOTH hypotheses, even if the question only names one?
- Have I stated the modern nuanced consensus, not an all-or-nothing version of either model?