Is the Out of Africa Theory Out?

[trehinp]

Under that typical media hype announcement there is an interesting article published in Scientific American this month.
Scientific American, August 08, 2007

Is the Out of Africa Theory Out?
An examination of over 5,000 teeth from early human ancestors shows that many of the first Europeans probably came from Asia
By Nikhil Swaminathan
Click here for more

Quite an fascinating analysis by Erik Trinkaus

I'm not a specialist, but it seems that this is challenging quite a few theories on the migrations of populations to Europe.

Yours sincerely.

Paul

[lagarvelho]

Paul:

I don't think Trinkaus is suggesting that anybody "dump" OoA.  I'm not sure what Scientific American is suggesting; I keep reading so many of these "hype" articles that it's often hard to keep them straight.  What Trinkaus seems to be suggesting, though, is that there is a "Neandertal substrate" in the makeup of the earliest Europeans, which would put the "strictest" versions of OoA into some doubt.
Anne G

[trehinp]

Ann,

 I didn't say Trinkaus wanted to dump the Out of Africa theory. In my comment I just said that this article, besides the hype of its title, was chalenging the way we thought the latest European populations arrived there.

But you're absolutely right: the journalistic hype is quite a nuisance... I even spoke of "media hype announcement" in my first post... It is a pity that even Scientific American would play that game...

If you or someone else have better scientific sources I'd be delighted to read them...

Paul

[trehinp]

Here is the reference of the scientific article. I could only get the abstract... They charge 10$ for a 2 day access...

Dental evidence on the hominin dispersals during the Pleistocene

Click here for the abstract

Full reference :

M. Martinón-Torres, J. M. Bermúdez de Castro, A. Gómez-Robles, J. L. Arsuaga, E. Carbonell, D. Lordkipanidze, G. Manzi, and A. Margvelashvili
Dental evidence on the hominin dispersals during the Pleistocene
PNAS published August 7, 2007, 10.1073/pnas.0706152104

There are several other links on this subject

The following one from National Geographic News is rather complete:

First Europeans Came From Asia, Not Africa, Tooth Study Suggests
Kate Ravilious, for National Geographic News
August 6, 2007

Click here for National Geographic  Paper

Yours sincerely.

Paul