SAEDNEWS: Researchers claim to have discovered the exact location where the first modern humans lived before migrating to other parts of the world.
According to Saed News, citing ISNA, Modern science has long accepted that the first anatomically modern humans emerged in Africa around 200,000 years ago. However, the precise location where our earliest ancestors originated has remained a subject of debate.
A team of researchers led by Professor Vanessa Hayes of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research believes they have identified that ancestral homeland. Their findings suggest that the earliest ancestors of modern humans lived in a vast region of southern Africa, where they remained for approximately 70,000 years before beginning to migrate.
The proposed homeland was located south of the greater Zambezi River basin. It covered much of present-day northern Botswana and extended west into Namibia and east toward Zimbabwe.
At the heart of this region was Lake Makgadikgadi, once the largest lake system in Africa. Today, the lake has dried up and forms part of the Kalahari Desert. Geological evidence indicates that tectonic activity caused the lake to begin drying long before modern humans appeared.
According to the researchers, the formation of extensive wetlands in the area created a stable and resource-rich environment that allowed early human populations to thrive for thousands of years.
Professor Hayes explained that the team's genetic analysis revealed a significant pattern in the earliest branches of modern humans. Their results indicate that human ancestors began leaving the region between 130,000 and 110,000 years ago.
The first migration moved toward the northeast, followed by a second wave that traveled to the southwest. Meanwhile, roughly one-third of the original population remained in the ancestral homeland and continued living there.
To understand what triggered these migrations, Professor Axel Timmermann, Director of the Center for Climate Physics at Pusan National University, analyzed computer simulations of ancient climate patterns alongside geological records covering the past 250,000 years.
His simulations showed that slow changes in Earth's rotational axis altered summer solar radiation in the Southern Hemisphere. These astronomical shifts affected rainfall patterns across southern Africa, gradually transforming the landscape.
Around 130,000 years ago, increased rainfall produced greener environments in the northeastern part of the region. Approximately 110,000 years ago, similar environmental improvements spread to the southwest. These newly favorable habitats likely opened migration routes that encouraged the earliest human populations to leave their ancestral homeland.
To reach their conclusions, Hayes and her colleagues collected blood samples to build a comprehensive catalog of mitochondrial genomes from the LO lineage, the oldest known maternal lineage among modern humans. Through collaboration with local communities and study participants in Namibia and South Africa, the researchers identified several rare and previously unknown LO sub-lineages.
By incorporating 198 newly sequenced mitochondrial genomes into existing genetic databases, the team was able to reconstruct the ancestry and migration history of the earliest modern humans with greater accuracy.
Professor Hayes noted that while scientists have known for some time that anatomically modern humans appeared in Africa about 200,000 years ago, the exact location of their origin and the paths taken by their earliest descendants have remained unresolved.
She explained that mitochondrial DNA serves as a genetic time capsule passed down through maternal lines, changing only gradually over generations. By comparing complete mitochondrial genomes from different individuals, scientists can uncover how populations are related and trace their shared ancestry back through time.
