SweetBasil_ t1_iws9sxy wrote on November 17, 2022 at 11:34 PM

Reply to comment by artaig in Are Neanderthals and Denisovans descendants or relatives of modern humans? And where did each lineage start? by bigsuperdave44

it's generally not thought that H. erectus evolved into Neandertals/Denisovans outside of Africa. Erectus was already outside of Africa long before the split separating the N/D lineage from ancestral sapiens happened within Africa.

Neandertals/Denisovans likely descended from H. heidelbergensis. A similar looking population to heidelbergensis is found in Africa, where it is sometimes called H. rhodesiensis. This population leaving Africa maybe ~700,000 years ago likely gave rise to Neandertals and Denisovans in Eurasia, while that staying behind (rhodesiensis) could have given rise to sapiens.

For comparison, Erectus is found outside of Africa (in Java) by at least 1.4 million years ago.

Interestingly, the genome of a Denisovan in Siberia showed small traces of an even older genome. This may have been from interbreeding with erectus.

MegavirusOfDoom t1_iwt4yu4 wrote on November 18, 2022 at 3:41 AM

Since 1.3 million years, more than 50% of hominid finds come from europe and asia, so perhaps the African origin since 1mn years is overstated in the fog of 50 subspecies of which we know half a dozen. Neanderthal and Denisovan arent reported in africa, althought their roots are perhaps 70% african from 500k yrs.