<P> Ethiopia is considered one of the earliest sites of the emergence of anatomically modern humans, Homo sapiens . The oldest of these local fossil finds, the Omo remains, were excavated in the southwestern Omo Kibish area and have been dated to the Middle Paleolithic, around 200,000 years ago . Additionally, skeletons of Homo sapiens idaltu were found at a site in the Middle Awash valley . Dated to approximately 160,000 years ago, they may represent an extinct subspecies of Homo sapiens, or the immediate ancestors of anatomically modern humans . Fossils excavated at the Jebel Irhoud site in Morocco have since been dated to an earlier period, about 300,000 years ago . </P> <P> Current dating of human fossils indicates that modern humans migrating Out of Africa between 125 - 18 kya (thousand years ago) moved into lands occupied by at least four known homo species . These are (species / place / most recent date alive): h. erectus, Eurasia, 27kya; h. neanderthalensis, Europe 30kya / Central Asia 40kya; h. sp. altai (or Denisovans), Siberia / Asia / SE Asia, 30kya), h . floresiensis (or' Hobbits', note controversy whether this is a homo species), SE Asia, 18kya . There is genetic evidence from Melanesian and Australian Aboriginal DNA, of another unidentified homo species from around 400kya to a time when interbreeding with modern humans migrating OoA could have occurred (70 - 30kya?). Plus, early humans could have interacted with any number of hybrid groups that became extinct, as indicated by examples such as: Lapedo Child, Europe, 24kya; Red Deer Cave People, China, 11kya; h. tsaichangensis, Taiwan, 10kya . </P> <P> When modern humans reached the Near East or Levantine corridor 125,000 years ago, evidence suggests they were forced out, as their settlements were replaced by Neanderthals between 80 - 47kys . This same reference shows support for the probability that multiple Out of Africa (OoA) migrations occurred from as early as 125kya to as far as China, but "died out" and did not contribute to the DNA of living modern humans . One well supported view is that the first modern humans that contributed to the DNA of living modern humans, spread east across Asia from Africa about 75,000 years ago across the Southern Route of Bab el Mandib connecting Ethiopia and Yemen . A recent review has shown support for both the Northern Route through Sinai / Israel / Syria (Levant), and, that both routes may have been used . From the Near East, some of these people went east to South Asia by 50,000 years ago, and on to Australia by 46,000 years ago at the latest, when for the first time H. sapiens reached territory never reached by H. erectus . H. sapiens reached Europe around 43,000 years ago, eventually replacing the Neanderthal population by 40,000 years ago East Asia was reached by 30,000 years ago . Archaeological and genetic data suggest that the source populations of Paleolithic humans survived in sparsely wooded areas and dispersed through areas of high primary productivity while avoiding dense forest cover . The date of migration to North America, and whether humans had previously inhabited the Americas is disputed; it may have taken place around 130 thousand years ago, or considerably later, around 14 thousand years ago . The oldest radiocarbon dated carbonized plant remains were determined to be 50,300 years old and were discovered at the Topper site in Allendale South Carolina in May 2004 alongside stone tools similar to those of pre-Clovis era humans . The oldest DNA evidence of human habitation in North America however, has been radiocarbon dated to 14,300 years ago, and was found in fossilized human coprolites uncovered in the Paisley Five Mile Point Caves in south - central Oregon . Colonization of the Pacific islands of Polynesia began around 1300 BC, and was completed by 1280 AD (New Zealand). The ancestors of Polynesians left Taiwan around 5,200 years ago . </P> <P> More recent migrations of language and culture groups within the modern species are also studied and hypothetised . The African Epipaleolithic Kebaran culture is believed to have reached Eurasia about 18,000 years ago, introducing the bow and arrow to the Middle East, and may have been responsible for the spread of the Nostratic languages . The people of the Afro - Asiatic language family seem to have reached Africa in 6,200 BC, introducing the Semitic languages to the Middle East . </P>

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