Before modern humans began their major dispersal out of Africa about 50,000 years ago, they moved to places that were significantly more ecologically diverse, which may have given them the flexibility they needed to migrate across the globe, a new study finds.
Our species, Homo sapiens, originated in Africa more than 300,000 years ago. Genetic evidence suggests that all modern human populations outside Africa mostly descend from a small group of modern humans who started migrating out of Africa about 50,000 years ago.
