Multiregional origin of modern humans

A model proposing that modern humans evolved in multiple regions from archaic populations, with gene flow maintaining their unity as a species.

Gene flow: The transfer of genetic variants between populations through migration and reproduction. Interregional gene flow is the mechanism proposed to keep evolving regional populations part of one species.
Franz Weidenreich: A German anatomist who studied human fossils and argued for regional continuity in human evolution. His synthesis of Asian fossils helped establish an early form of multiregional thinking.
Jebel Irhoud: A Moroccan archaeological site containing early fossils attributed to Homo sapiens, dated to about 300,000 years ago. Its age and African location bear on when and where early Homo sapiens appeared.
Recent African origin with assimilation: A model in which modern humans originated in Africa, dispersed globally, and absorbed some archaic populations through interbreeding. It accommodates archaic admixture while assigning modern humans a primary African origin.
Human evolution: The evolutionary history of humans and their extinct relatives. The model is one account of how regional populations contributed to that history.
Regional continuity: The persistence of ancestry from earlier local populations in later populations of the same region. The model gives regional continuity a major role in the emergence of modern human populations.
Carleton S. Coon: An American physical anthropologist known for a controversial theory of regional human evolution. His account of separate regional transitions became associated with a more strongly divergent version of the model.
Homo erectus: An extinct human species that lived across Africa and Eurasia for nearly two million years. It represents an ancestral archaic population invoked in some regional-continuity arguments.
Replacement hypothesis: The view that expanding modern human populations largely replaced archaic humans without substantial interbreeding. It contrasts with the model's claim that gene flow connected archaic regional populations.
Human genetic variation: Differences in genetic sequences among individuals and populations of humans. The model prompted questions about whether present-day variation reflects deep regional continuity.

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