# Population Genetics > Paleogenetics > Paleolithic & Mesolithic >  Y and mtDna from East Asia, autosomes multi-regional?

## Angela

See:
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/101410v6

"*Modern human origins: multiregional evolution of autosomes and East Asia origin of Y and mtDNA"*"*Abstract*The neutral theory has been used as a null model for interpreting nature and produced the Recent Out of Africa model of anatomically modern humans. Recent studies, however, have established that genetic diversities are mostly at maximum saturation levels maintained by selection, therefore challenging the explanatory power of the neutral theory and rendering the present molecular model of human origins untenable. Using improved methods and public data, we have revisited human evolution and found sharing of genetic variations among racial groups to be largely a result of parallel mutations rather than recent common ancestry and admixture as commonly assumed. We derived an age of 1.86-1.92 million years for the first split in modern human populations based on autosomal diversity data. We found evidence of modern Y and mtDNA originating in East Asia and dispersing via hybridization with archaic humans. Analyses of autosomes, Y and mtDNA all suggest that Denisovan and Neanderthal were archaic Africans with Eurasian admixtures and ancestors of South Asia Negritos and Aboriginal Australians. Verifying our model, we found more ancestry of Southern Chinese from Hunan in Africans relative to other East Asian groups examined. These results suggest multiregional evolution of autosomes and replacements of archaic Y and mtDNA by modern ones originating in East Asia, thereby leading to a coherent account of modern human origins."

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## Tamakore

So, it turns out that the origin of modern humans was in China, not Africa. I suppose academics in the PRC continue to pursue the multiregional model because limits on their academic freedom mean that they are constrained to follow the Sinocentric line of the Chinese government. It reminds me of the traditional Chinese worldview when China was the centre of the world (the Middle Kingdom) and the rest of the world was an uncivilized outer region. The authors ignore or dismiss the evidence that supports the out-of-Africa model. For example, one of the strongest pieces of circumstantial evidence for out-of-Africa is the fact that modern humans in sub-Saharan Africa have much more genetic diversity than the rest of the world combined. The paper dismisses this unconvincingly as due to "parallel mutations" and hybridization. Their selective use of the fossil record is similarly unconvincing. Does the fact that noone else in this forum has commented on such a startling hypothesis mean that noone is taking it seriously?

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## shawn_lel

> So, it turns out that the origin of modern humans was in China, not Africa. I suppose academics in the PRC continue to pursue the multiregional model because limits on their academic freedom mean that they are constrained to follow the Sinocentric line of the Chinese government. It reminds me of the traditional Chinese worldview when China was the centre of the world (the Middle Kingdom) and the rest of the world was an uncivilized outer region. The authors ignore or dismiss the evidence that supports the out-of-Africa model. For example, one of the strongest pieces of circumstantial evidence for out-of-Africa is the fact that modern humans in sub-Saharan Africa have much more genetic diversity than the rest of the world combined. The paper dismisses this unconvincingly as due to "parallel mutations" and hybridization. Their selective use of the fossil record is similarly unconvincing. Does the fact that noone else in this forum has commented on such a startling hypothesis mean that noone is taking it seriously?


Wow...I did not know that

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## holderlin

> Does the fact that noone else in this forum has commented on such a startling hypothesis mean that noone is taking it seriously?


Yes

And LOL

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## Punish Them 911

> For example, one of the strongest pieces of circumstantial evidence for out-of-Africa is the fact that modern humans in sub-Saharan Africa have much more genetic diversity than the rest of the world combined.


This is a very weak form of evidence which we have all witnessed the failure of before. For example, in the mid-2000s researchers overwhelmingly thought the homeland of R1b was Western Europe, based on the current diversity there. We all know that's false now from fossil DNA and that R1b M-269 is from the Eastern European steppe.

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