Early Human Migrations

Introduction

The fossil and genomic record tell us that our species originated in Africa around 200,000 years ago (These numbers might now go back further). The first 100,000 years were spent in Africa and soon after our species began to expand into different world regions.

What you are doing

Your task will be to explore the complex fossil and genetic history of modern humans as they left Africa for the first time.

For this webquest you will only be able to choose one of the following world regions:

• The Americas (you will be including both North and South)
• Europe

All world regions have complicated population histories that are the result of a number of populations that have come together to form the present population. What insight do genomic studies of ancient fossils and modern populations give us in reference to the number of founding populations that form your chosen world region?

Before you begin your task make sure you do the following things

Read the following articles: Native American Genetics, (Links to an external site.)European Genetics (Links to an external site.)

What you have to do for points

1. All of the assigned world regions are composed of multiple Homo sapiens populations that arrived at different times to the current world region that you are exploring. What do genomic studies of ancient fossils and modern populations give us in reference to the number of founding populations of your chosen world region and what does the data say about when the different populations arrived?
2. Make sure you give citations

Tips for success

• Please keep your answer to only what is asked in the assignment.
• I recommend composing your content offline in a text editor and then copy and paste the text into your reply post. If something happens you will have an offline copy of all of your hard work!
• I highly recommend using Google Docs (Drive) to compose offline, as Google plays well with web-based forums. If you are using Microsoft Word to compose offline, you may need to do some editing to the format when you paste it into the reply.

Rubric

Some Rubric (4)