[shunyadragon]

</span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (karhu,)
Hello

I have always been wondering about human evolution and where it started. I want to know what kind of opinions people have about it. Is it so that human primates evolved only in Africa or could it be possible that they evolved elsewhere?

Some background facts --  as probably everyone knows;
African apes evolved from asian orang-utans 15 million years ago and apes and human primates diverged some 4-6 million years ago. The really interesting thing is the evolution of the modern human being. There is the "out of Africa theory" and the "multi evolution  theory" stating that the modern human being might have evolved in Asia as well as in Africa. There is of course the genetic theory/ evidence about the African Eve. So what did really happen? Any toughts?<hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'>

Very recent discoveries in Africa of the oldest cultural artifacts known, possibly dating from more than 75,000 years ago support the out of Africa view.

Beads made from sea shells and Ostrich egg shell have been found in two locations in Africa.

There are several other opposing views to the out of Africa theory. Some of the origins thories are subject to regional, ethnic pride and religious bias.

(1) Asia and Australiasia origins. Chinese academia and some other scientists support this view.

(2) Eurasian origins. This view is an older theory popular because of the large number of early sites discovered in Europe, but no longer recieves wide spread support, because most European scientist now support the out of Africa theory.

(3) Multiple origins theories. These theories come and go based on the evidence found and regional and ethnic bias. It is not generally popular with most scientists because of the complexity and difficulty of cutting and pasting all the evidence to fit this model.

(4) Out of Arfica or whereever according to the fundimentalist Christians and the 'Creation Science' advocates. This belief is based on the literal interpretation of the Bible and the origins of humans and everything else is by an act of God less than 10,000 years ago. The Garden of Eden is the place of origin of humans. Many believe the Garden was in Africa.