The European Origins of All Humans
The latest science against "we are all Africans" and "cold winters."
Humans evolved in Africa. Africa is the home of all apes, and apes live in tropical jungles. Humans then migrated (for no reason at all except for the love of the challenge) to colder climates. The hereditarian position is that these cold climates were harsh and required human beings to plan for winter by harvesting excess food in the summers and storing it until the winter. It required humans to work together to hunt large game like mammoths, and it required them to build shelters like long-houses. It required them to be altruistic and collectivistic. In other words, the harshness of Europe and Asia resulted in greater selection for social cooperation and future-orientation. These humans were so intelligent that they managed to wipe out the Neanderthals through warfare and interbreeding.
Then, 12,000 years ago, farming arose in river valleys in the Middle East, which was the cradle of civilization. Writing soon followed, which was first invented by the Phoenicians. It is not coincidental that the Hebrews, the southern cousins of the Phoenicians, were the first to invent monotheism, the world's first proper religion. The Greeks, who were the first Europeans to read and write, then developed philosophy, science, and mathematics, which then spread to the Romans. Christianity combined Greek philosophy with Jewish religion to create western civilization.
Atheism is now abandoning the superstition of a personal God, but maintaining the egalitarian moral structures of Christianity in the form of liberalism to make the world a more equal place. Now, because of liberalism, it is only a matter of time until Africa and Asia demographically dominate Europe. Demographics are destiny, and total extinction of Europeans is inevitable unless they convert en-masse to Christianity, restore family values, and outbreed the rest of the world. The true heroes of today are not the liberal professors, scientists, or millionaires, but the humble ones who read King James only and attend Latin mass. The meek, after all, will inherit the earth.
Actually, all of that is scientifically incorrect. Today we will address the first myth, that humans evolved in Africa.
Humans did not evolve exclusively in Africa. This is an important mythological dogma, both for egalitarians as well as hereditarians. Egalitarians need to believe it because it allows them to say, in the voice of Richard Dawkins, "we are all Africans." Hereditarians need to believe it because it shows that Africa is an "easy" environment, whereas Europe and Asia are "cold," providing an environmental basis for differential selective pressures.
As we will find, humans did not "randomly migrate from warm Africa into cold Eurasia." This implies the mythological idea that ancient apes were Nietzscheans who enjoyed mountain climbing "just for the thrill." It is certainly an exciting and life-affirming idea, but it may not be the most likely. Is it more likely that an animal migrates to a new environment without cause, and then evolves, or that the previous environment changes and forces an adaptation? Both are possible, but if there is evidence of environmental change, that must be taken into account.
The theory which I will present here1 is that proto-humans evolved in Europe, and as the European climate was destroyed due to a supervolcanic eruption in Yellowstone, intense climatic pressures refined the human type in the area of present-day Greece around 7 million years ago. After this refinement, humans were forced into Africa, but later returned to Europe at some point before 1.8 million years ago to develop the stone tools that distinguish humans from other apes. After this point, humans would freely migrate between Europe and Africa, spreading their tools everywhere they went, before differentiating into different species such as Homo Antecessor, Homo Heidelbergensis, Homo Neanderthalensis, and Homo Sapiens.2
When I say that these groups are all human, I mean that the general intelligence of several of these species may have been higher than present-day human populations, that they all looked much more like us than they looked like any apes, and that they walked upright on two legs. One of the arguments for the African origins of bipedalism is that bipedalism is an adaptation to a savannah environment, where trees don't exist. Remarkably, this environment existed in Europe during the period when early human evolution was taking place.
If we look for evidence before dogma, we should ask ourselves five questions: "Where did humans, chimps, and gorillas originate from? Where did humans develop our modern-shaped skull? Where did apes start walking upright? Where were the first apes living in a savannah? Where did apes start using stone tools?"
Before we investigate these claims, we have to dismiss the entire notion that human evolution had to occur in Africa due to climate. If Europe was intensely cold, and Africa warm, an apes are a warm weather species (sorry, Mr. Yeti), then Africa would make sense. But this was simply not the case.
Mainstream estimates of the split between gorillas and chimps occurred sometime between 8 to 19 million years ago. So, when we ask, "what was the climate like during early human evolution?", we have to look especially at this time period and what followed it. And while you were not taught this in high school, we are going to have to discuss geological periodization. Yes, this is a lecture on geology, the most boring science, the study of rocks. But it is the most important science for understanding where we come from.
Geological periodization is just a fancy term for "how geologists keep track of big time scales and group them together." You're probably familiar with geological Periods such as the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous. Those Periods had durations lasting somewhere on the order of 50 to 100 million years. A lot can change over that kind of time scale.
Within each Period, there are smaller units called Epochs. They are usually 10 or 20 million years, although the most recent one, the Holocene, only started 10,000 years ago. The science of geology, with the help of ancient ice cores, gives us evidence about what the climate was like during the Epoch most relevant to early human evolution.
By early human evolution, we are referring to four events: the gorilla-chimp split (which occurred before or during the "human" split), the evolution of the human skull, the evolution of bipedalism, and the evolution of stone tool making. For each of these events, we are looking at the Miocene Epoch.
The Miocene Epoch was the most important Epoch for the history of proto-humans as something distinct from our chimp and gorilla cousins. Everything that happened afterwards, in the Pliocene and Pleistocene, can be described as "post-human." Most estimates date the humans-chimps split to 6 to 9 million years ago -- well within the Miocene.
What was the climate like in the Miocene? Let's ask the experts. "The Miocene provides one of the best analogues for near future anthropogenic warming — with atmospheric CO2 concentrations similar, or slightly higher than present, warmer global temperatures, and a summer ice-free Arctic."3 The warmest part of the Miocene is called the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum (MMCO), during which things were especially warm between 18 and 14 million years ago.
When climatologists and geologists refer to a climatic optimum, they mean that the climate was super awesome. No snow, no ice, just good times. By comparison, we are currently in an ice age. Since we live in such a depressing, snowy time in Earth's history, it is hard to imagine what Europe looked like during the Miocene. The best way to visualize the continent during early human evolution is to look at that continent which lies, present-day, south of Europe. Africa!
During the most crucial period of early human evolution, Europe looked like present-day Africa. It is no coincidence, then, that the first European ape, Griphopithecus, evolved during this time. Contrary to the out-of-Africa myth, Griphopithecus has the potential to be the ancestor of Africa's present-day apes, not the other way around.4
The proponents of the "out of Griphopithecus" theory could be wrong, but the adventure doesn't stop there. Let's talk about skulls. Humans have a pretty unique skull compared to our ape cousins. When you look at a chimp or gorilla, you will notice that their entire mouth juts out of their face, and then the skull recedes back, so that the forehead is sloped and "behind" the mouth. If we put a ruler under the jaw of an ape, and measured the angle produced by putting another ruler along the plane of their face, we would find a much smaller angle than the angle of humans. In the case of the ancient Greeks, they often portrayed their Gods as having a craniofacial angle of 90, where the mouth and forehead perfectly align. Part of the explanation for why human foreheads are so "forward" is that we have a much larger frontal lobe when compared to our ape cousins. So where did apes start to see a growth in craniofacial angles?
The first evidence we see of enlarging craniofacial angles comes from Spain, around 12 million years ago, from a specimen called "brevirostris." Brevirostis is Latin for "short snout," and refers to the position of the mouth with respect to the forehead. Rather than merely summarize the implications of this, I will again directly quote the experts:
"The presence of both groups [Griphopithecus and Kenyapithecus] in Eurasia during the Middle Miocene and the retention in kenyapithecins of a primitive hominoid postcranial body plan support a Eurasian origin of the Hominidae. [Not an African one.] The most outstanding characteristic of [Anoiapithecus] brevirostris is the strong reduction of the facial skeleton, [..] and reduced alveolar prognathism."
Let me interrupt the experts for a second, because these terms are very technical. "Alveolar" refers to the forward position of both the mandible (lower jaw) and maxilla (upper jaw). Rather than producing an overbite or underbite, alveolar prognathism increases the overall size of the skull and reduces the craniofacial angle. Got that? Back to the experts:
"The [craniofacial] value of [Anoiapithecus] brevirostris is even higher [than more recent finds in Africa such as the Australopithecus, "Lucy"] and [is] only comparable to that of fossil Homo."5
So far, we have evidence for two separate claims:
1. Present-day African apes originated in Europe, not Africa. This is because the European climate was much more "African" during the Miocene. There were no "cold winters."
2. The high craniofacial angle, which makes humans unique among all apes, evolved in Spain.
The next claim we will investigate is bipedalism. Human beings walk upright with two feet. Where is this first found? Not far from Spain, around the same 11-12 million year old time frame, we find Danuvius Guggenmosi in southern Germany. When a singing coach tells you to breathe from your belly, they are telling you to use your lower diaphragm. Unlike previous apes, Guggenmosi had a lower diaphragm. Now, I want you to do an experiment. Stand up really straight, and try to breathe from your belly. (If you don't know how to do this, go watch a youtube tutorial) Now, bend over and pretend you are a chimp or a gorilla, and try to do the same thing. Harder, isn't it? It turns out that the lower diaphragm is something which co-evolved with our "uprightness."6
Europe is the home of all African apes, it is where the unique human skull first evolved, it is where bipedalism first evolved. All of this should allow us to question the "certainty" of the Out-of-Africa dogma. Some of these papers came out in 2019. This information is only five years old. Maybe we can forgive your highschool teacher from telling you that humans came from Africa, but this is science. We discard old theories that fail to correspond with new evidence.
Unfortunately for our European ancestors, the amazing climate of the Miocene was not to last forever. Around 8-9 million years ago, Yellowstone blew up. The Grey's Landing super-eruption was the largest in Yellowstone's history. It filled the atmosphere with ash and dust, which killed off a lot of European apes. This likely pushed many apes out of Eurasia and into Africa:
"During the Miocene epoch, the Eurasian continent was home to a great radiation of hominoid primates that pre-dated the radiation of hominids in Africa. [..] ranging from Spain to southeastern Asia [..] hominoids [..] went gradually extinct [in Europe] during the Late Miocene, [..] after a dramatic drop during the Late Tortonian (11.2–7.1 Ma) and more specifically around [..] 8.7 Ma [..] The hominoid extinction from Spain to Pakistan reflects the high impact of global climatic changes, such as the succession of Antarctic glaciations between 13.5 and 8.5 Ma [..] or the impacts of Tibetan elevation phases on atmospheric circulations [..] In central Europe, the Alps uplift contributed to the shrinking of the Pannonian Lake [..]"7
As European apes were pushed to the brink of extinction, one brave species stood up to the really bad weather. That species name was Graecopithecus. Again, the studies which examine these remains are extremely recent, published as recently as 2017.8
They find: "the potentially oldest hominin, Graecopithecus freybergi from Europe [..] an age of 7.37–7.11 Ma, [during] a dramatic cooling in the Mediterranean region at the Tortonian-Messinian transition. [..] The [..] mandible of [Graecopithecus] freybergi from Pyrgos (7.175 Ma) and the single tooth (7.24 Ma) from Azmaka (Bulgaria) represent the first hominids of [the] Messinian age from continental Europe. Our results suggest that major splits in the hominid family occurred outside Africa. [..] During the latest Tortonian (~7.4–7.25 Ma) C4 grass ecosystems progressively penetrate the Balkan Peninsula [..] The classical Pikermi fauna is terminated at the beginning of the Messinian (7.25–7.10 Ma) [..] by massive increase of Saharan dust and salt [..] At the Tortonian-Messinian boundary (7.25 Ma), [..] increasing aridification. [..] large amount[s] of salt-laden mineral dust [..] were blown from dried lake beds in North Africa toward Europe, [..]. aridification and cooling [..] started at around 7.4 Ma and culminated during the earliest Messinian, when Mediterranean Sea surface temperature dropped by about 7°C to values comparable to the present-day [..]"
Words like "Tortonian" and "Messinian" are sections of time called "Stages," which is a smaller chunk within the Miocene Epoch. The description of a desert-like environment is important, because:
"Graecopithecus [..] lived in a warm-temperate and dusty environment unlike any other known hominid (except for our own genus). Graecopithecus predates by several hundred thousand years the next youngest candidate hominin Sahelanthropus, which occupied the southern Saharan tropics after its earliest Messinian desertification. Given the potential hominin affinity of Graecopithecus, our results suggest that the Pan-Homo split [the split between the genus Homo and the chimpanzee genus] predated the Messinian and that the chimpanzee–human last common ancestor thrived in the Mediterranean region. [..] major Miocene hominid radiations occurred outside Africa and [..] the hominin clade arose in the Eastern Mediterranean."
To quickly recount our findings, we have discovered that:
1. African apes come from Europe.
2. Human skull shape originated in Europe.
3. Bipedalism originated in Europe.
4. Apes have never been found in any dusty environment, except humans. The fact that Graecopithecus survived in a dusty environment indicates that it is a potential ancestor of all modern humans. All humans are descended, not from Africans, but from Greeks (geographically).
What about tools? Aren't the oldest tools found in Africa? Unfortunately for the Out-of-Africa dogmatists, this seems questionable at best if we look specifically at the Acheulian tool culture. The traditional narrative about the Acheulian tools are that they originated in Kenya .76 million years ago, and then spread all over the world.9 The problem with this theory is that Acheulian tools have been found in Europe in the same exact time period, tools which may even be slightly older, given the roughness of dating.
In the country of Georgia, "Dmanisi is the oldest site outside of Africa that records unquestioned hominin occupations [..] at 1.7–1.8 Ma in Eurasia. [..] The Dmanisi site in the Southern Caucasus (Georgia), dated to 1.7–1.8 Ma, challenges the theories about the first hominin dispersal from Africa and the first settlements in Eurasia. [..] These hominins are similar to the earliest members of the genus Homo, Homo habilis, as well as to African and Asian Homo erectus. They have been named Homo georgicus."10
Humans didn't evolve in Africa. They evolved in Europe, migrated to Africa, migrated back to Europe, and back to Africa over millions of years. Given the current evidence, it seems as if humans invented Acheulian tools in Kenya and in the Caucasus mountains almost simultaneously, or at least close enough together that it is difficult to tell who was first. It is possible that they were invented in one area and quickly brought to another, or that we may find new evidence in a few years which shows even older usage. After all, most of these European finds were not known until the last ten or even five years. What will the next five to ten years reveal?
This is not original to me, and you can read entire books about this. See a good review: https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2020/12/23/book-review-the-real-planet-of-the-apes-a-new-story-of-human-origins/
For a paywalled article which presents a "compromise" between OOA and OOE, see here: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2079652-key-moments-in-human-evolution-happened-far-from-our-africa-home/
A late Miocene seasonality and wildfire record from northern Siberia utilising novel speleothem proxies: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-6078
Did Africa’s Apes Come From Europe? Fossil evidence hints that the common ancestor of gorillas, chimpanzees and humans evolved in Europe (Erin Wayman, 2012): https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/did-africas-apes-come-from-europe-113890377/
"A unique Middle Miocene European hominoid and the origins of the great ape and human clade." (2009): doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0811730106
"A new Miocene ape and locomotion in the ancestor of great apes and humans.” (2019): doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1731-0
“Ruminant diets and the Miocene extinction of European great apes.” (2010): https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.0523
“Messinian age and savannah environment of the possible hominin Graecopithecus from Europe.” (2017): doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0177347
"An earlier origin for the Acheulian." (2011): doi.org/10.1038/nature10372.]
“Hominin occupations at the Dmanisi site, Georgia, Southern Caucasus: Raw materials and technical behaviours of Europe’s first hominins.” (2010): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2010.10.008