Human Migration Patterns
Human evolution can also be examined through ancient migration patterns. Humans had occupied Africa about 150,000 years ago and finally moved out 70,000 years ago. Homo sapiens had eventually migrated all the way to Europe, Australia, and Asia by about 40,000 BCE, and reached the America’s around 20,000 to 15,000 years ago. Race can be widely attributed to certain groups different migration patterns. Early humans were hunters and gatherers, meaning that they would typically eat game meat and plants that were found in the wild. Early humans have left Africa total of 3 times, with them dying off because of things such as ice ages, volcanic eruptions, and drought. The reason humans left Africa was because they were following herds of animals and were in search of a water sources. The first wave was thought to have died out in the Middle East when an ice-aged occurred that started a crippling drought. The second wave took a crippling blow when a volcano in India exploded killing off a large portion of them. Then the third wave finally came through and were simply the lucky ones because no natural disasters significant enough to damage the overall migration of the humans.
One major characteristic that determines you race is skin color. This distinguishing feature is primarily due to difference in amount of the pigment, melanin, in the skin. This melanin protects the body by absorbing ultraviolet radiation from the sunlight which falls on the skin. UV radiation can damage the skin and produce skin cancer if it is not filtered out in this way. Modern humans most likely evolved in the tropics, where they were exposed to high UV levels. But as they moved into regions away from the equator, where UV levels are lower, humans became fairer so as to allow enough UV radiation to penetrate their skin and produce vitamin D, the "sunshine vitamin," also obtained from eating fish and marine mammals. Vitamin D is essential for maintaining healthy blood levels of calcium and phosphorous, and thus promoting bone growth. So because they were in certain parts of the world that would have less sunlight, like Scandinavia, the people with lighter complexions would be more likely to survive longer because they are healthier and have more Vitamin D. In places like Africa, for example, the people with darker complexions would have less of the harmful UV rays penetrate their skin, allowing them to get skin cancer less often than their lighter complexion counterparts and thus live longer.
So how is early human migration related to human evolution? Early migration shows a clear picture of how we have changed over a certain period time. People with white skin in Europe were more likely to survive, so they became more common in Europe. People in Africa with black skin were more likely to survive, so they become common in Africa. It is an example of how natural selection works, and also how people have evolved.
So how is early human migration related to human evolution? Early migration shows a clear picture of how we have changed over a certain period time. People with white skin in Europe were more likely to survive, so they became more common in Europe. People in Africa with black skin were more likely to survive, so they become common in Africa. It is an example of how natural selection works, and also how people have evolved.
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