Information about Multiregional Hypothesis

In paleoanthropology, the multiregional hypothesis is one of two accounts of the origin of anatomically modern humans, Homo sapiens. The other theory is the recent single-origin hypothesis (or Out-of-Africa model). While Out of Africa has received much support over the last decade, there do remain several prominent multiregionalists.

Pre-modern (non-sapiens) hominids

Because of the scarcity of fossils and the discovery of important new finds every few years, researchers disagree about the details and sometimes even basic elements of human evolutionary history. While they have revised this history several times over the last decades, researchers currently agree that the oldest named species of the genus Homo, Homo habilis, evolved in Africa around two million years ago, and that members of the genus migrated out of Africa somewhat later, at least 1.5 million years ago. The descendants of these ancient migrants, which probably included Homo erectus, have become known through fossils uncovered far from Africa, such as those of "Peking man" and "Java man". Homo neanderthalensis is also considered a descendant of early migrants.

The multiregional hypothesis for the human species holds that the evolution of humanity throughout the Pleistocene has been within a single widespread human species, Homo sapiens, in response to the normal forces of evolution: selection, mutation, genetic drift, and gene flow.

The term "multiregional hypothesis" was first coined in the early 1980s by Milford H. Wolpoff and a group of associates as an explanation for the apparent similarities of the remains from the Homo erectus and Homo sapiens inhabiting the same region. This phenomenon was termed regional continuity and baffled the scientists at first. These scientists explained the apparent regional continuity by claiming Homo erectus and Homo sapiens were the same species and there had been just enough interbreeding to cause an overall global development towards the latter, but without stamping out the regional adaptation that had been developed by the former. Such a delicate balance seemed unlikely and puzzled the anthropologists.

The Multiregional Hypothesis has its origin in the work of Franz Weidenreich in the 1930s. At that time, Weidenreich originated the "Weidenreich Theory of Human Evolution" based on his examination of Peking Man. Weidenreich was an anatomist and observed numerous anatomical characteristics that Peking Man had in common with modern Asians. The Weidenreich Theory stated that human races have evolved independently in the Old World from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens sapiens, while at the same time there was gene flow between the various populations. According to the theory proposed by Weidenreich, genes that were generally adaptive (such as those for intelligence) flowed relatively rapidly from one part of the world to the other, while those that were locally adaptive, would not. This is the direct opposite to theories of human evolution that have been popularized in the press with one superior race (e.g. Modern Humans) displacing other races (e.g. Neanderthals). A vocal proponent of the Weidenreich theory was Carleton Coon.

Eventually, Milford H. Wolpoff proposed an explanation based on clinal variation that would allow for the necessary balance. This was the multiregional hypothesis. It theorizes that Homo erectus, Neanderthals, Homo sapiens and other humans were a single species. This species arose in Africa two million years ago as Homo erectus and then spread out over the world, developing adaptations to regional conditions.

For periods of time some populations became isolated, developing in a different direction. But through a complicated process involving continuous interbreeding, replacement, genetic drift and other vehicles of evolution, adaptations that were an advantage anywhere on earth would spread, keeping the development of the species in the same overall direction, while maintaining adaptations to regional factors.

Eventually, the more unusual local varieties of the species would have disappeared in favor of modern humans while retaining some regional adaptations, but also with many common features.

Multiregional hypothesis and other theories of human origin

Multiregional evolution contrasts with the "recent single origin hypothesis (RSOH)." According to that theory, human evolution was a consequence of many cases of species replacement, as newer species replaced older ones across the human range. Modern human origins, according to the RSOH, is the most recent example of species replacement.

An older theory is Polygenic evolution, a multiple origins theory in which the different human populations or races had independent origins and evolved in isolation from each other. Held by many scholars of the 19th century such as Haeckel and Klaatsch, and even some of the 20th, such as Carleton S. Coon, it is biologically impossible since all populations of a species must have the same, single origin. Polygenism is sometimes mistaken for Multiregional evolution, because they are both hypotheses of evolution within a single species. However, Polygenic evolution depends on isolation of populations while Multiregional evolution requires population interactions and interbreeding so that genetic changes can spread throughout the human range, especially when they are promoted by natural selection. According to the Multiregional hypothesis, geographic differences between human populations are the results of climatic variation, isolation by distance, and historical accidents (genetic drift).

Recent evidence supporting this theory

Studies on past population bottlenecks that can be inferred from molecular data have led Multiregionalists to conclude that the recent single-origin hypothesis is untenable because there are no population size bottlenecks affecting all genes that are more recent than the one at the beginning of the species, some 2 million years ago. Multiregionalists claimed that the discovery of a possible hybrid Homo sapiens X neanderthalensis fossil child at the Abrigo do Lagar Velho rock-shelter site in Portugal in 1999 further supports the Multiregional hypothesis, by reflecting the inter-mixture of diverse human populations. Other archaeologists dispute this: "the analysis by Duarte et al. of the Lagar Velho child's skeleton is a brave and imaginative interpretation, of which it is unlikely that a majority of paleoanthropologists will consider proven." [1]

Proponents of the multiregional hypothesis point to a recent Australian study of an ancient Aboriginal skeleton known as Mungo Man. Genetic tests show the mitochondrial DNA of Mungo Man to be from a mtDNA lineage with no descendants today. Yet Mungo man is an anatomically modern human and has been dated to be at least 40,000 years old. These proponents interpret the study to mean that mtDNA does not reflect ancestry or divergence times, and this interpretation is supported by the discovery that the gene is subject to natural selection.

A recent, non-fossilized discovery of one metre-tall, small-brained (350 cc), Homo floresiensis, on the Indonesian island of Flores, might imply populations of Homo erectus survived very late, and gave rise to even later, physically dwarfed isolated "erectus" groups. However, this possibility does not address the Multiregional hypothesis, which is only about the human species, and the evidence is marred by the possibility that the single dwarf cranium found on Flores might have been pathological.

Proponents of the Hybrid-origin hypothesis point to the study Research on the X chromosome and interpret it to give genetic evidence for inter-breeding between Humans and other hominids.

Proponents of multiregionalism

Besides Milford H. Wolpoff, paleoanthropologists most closely associated with the multiregional hypothesis include James Ahern, James Calcagno[2], Rachel Caspari, David Frayer, Mica Glanz, John Hawks[3], Andrew Kramer, Sang-Hee Lee, Alan Mann, Janet Monge, Jakov Radovcic, Valeri Alexeev, Karen Rosenberg, Mary Russell, Lynne Schepartz, Fred Smith, Alan Thorne, Adam Van Arsdale, Bernard Vandermeersch.

See also

• Genetics
• Human evolution
• Mitochondrial Eve
• Most recent common ancestor
• Y-chromosomal Adam
• Polygenism

External links

• New analysis shows three human migrations out of Africa "The 'Out of Africa' replacement theory has always been a big controversy," Templeton said. "I set up a null hypothesis and the program rejected that hypothesis using the new data with a probability level of 10 to the minus 17th. In science, you don't get any more conclusive than that. It says that the hypothesis of no interbreeding is so grossly incompatible with the data, that you can reject it."
• http://harpend.dsl.xmission.com/Documents/eswaran%20et%20al%202005%20genomics%20refutes%20exclusively%20african%20origin%20jhe.pdf - 'Genomics refutes an exclusively African origin of humans' (pdf) Vinayak Eswaran, Henry Harpending, Alan R. Rogers, Journal of Human Evolution (2005)
• http://www.corante.com/loom/img/Templeton%20tree%20600.jpg - 'Templeton tree'
• http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~anthro/lv.html - 'The Hybrid Child from Portugal'
• Biochem. Soc. Trans (2005) 33, 582-585 - J. Hardy and others - Molecular Mechanisms of Neurodegeneration (Evidence suggesting that Homo neanderthalensis contributed the H2 MAPT haplotype to Homo sapiens)
• Kent Holsinger's web site - 'Drift and migration' (only 1 migrant per generation between populations of reasonable big sizes can prevent divergence in allelic frequencies)
• Genetics - 'Deep Haplotype Divergence and Long-Range Linkage Disequilibrium at Xp21.1 Provide Evidence That Humans Descend From a Structured Ancestral Population' (first genetic evidence that statistically rejects the null hypothesis that our species descends from a single, historically panmictic population), Daniel Garrigan, Zahra Mobasher, Sarah B. Kingan, Jason A. Wilder, and Michael F. Hammer, University of Arizona, Tucson, Genetics, Vol. 170, 1849-1856, August 2005
• Linfield.edu - 'The Origin of Modern Humans: Multiregional and Replacement Theories', Michael Roberts, Linfield College
• http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/22/2/189 - 'Evidence for Archaic Asian Ancestry on the Human X Chromosome' (suggests ancient RRM2P4 lineage is remnant of introgressive hybrid of anatomically modern humans from Africa and archaic populations in Eurasia), Daniel Garrigan, Zahra Mobasher, Tesa Severson, Jason A. Wilder, Michael F. Hammer, University of Arizona, Tucson, Molecular Biology and Evolution, vol 22, no 2, p 189-192 (2005)
• PLoS Genetics - 'Possible ancestral structure in human populations', Vincent Plagnol, Jeff D. Wall, PLoS Genetics, (2006) (evidence for ancient admixture in both a European and a West African population (p ~ 10^-7), with contributions to the modern gene pool of at least 5%. While Neanderthals form an obvious archaic source population candidate in Europe, there is not yet a clear source population candidate in West Africa.)
• PNAS.org - 'Mitochondrial DNA sequences in ancient Australians: Implications for modern human origins', Gregory J. Adcock, Elizabeth S. Dennis, Simon Easteal, Gavin A. Huttley, Lars S. Jermiin, W. James Peacock, Alan Thorne, Australian National University, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol 98, no 2, p 537-542 (January 16, 2001)
• StephenJayGould.org - 'Out of Africa vs. Multiregionalism', Tod Billings (December 7, 1999)
• TalkOrigins.org - 'The evolution of modern humans: where are we now?' Christopher B. Stringer, General Anthropology, vol 7, no 2, p 1-5 (2001)