Revealing Our Human Evolution Mystery Through Ancient Fossils With Chris Stringer

In this episode, physical anthropologist and archaeologist Chris Stringer joins us to explore fossil records and what they tell us about the birth of our species and its staying power on Earth. Chris is known as one of the leading proponents of the “Recent African Origins” hypothesis, which is currently the most widely accepted model for the origin of our species. This hypothesis is that the modern form of Homo sapiens and human behavior had evolved in Africa by at least 150,000 years ago. Around 60,000 years ago, modern humans left Africa, replacing archaic hominins outside of the continent with restricted amounts of interbreeding. We dive deep into the whole story from 7MM years ago to the Neolithic revolution and to us as lone survivors. He talks about the last 500 thousand years when lots of homo species were existing at the same time and the behavioral and cognitive traits that distinguished current Homo sapiens from other anatomically modern humans. Additionally we talk about fossils, what evidence they are providing in regards to human evolution and where they are found. Stringer looks ahead on ideas from a historical fossil perspective and shares the importance of fossil protein that can take us beyond ancient DNA and provide us with more information about how Homo sapiens came to be. SUPPORT US ON PATREON: JOIN OUR DISCORD: Who is Chris Stringer? Professor Chris Stringer is a Research Leader in Human Origins at the Natural History Museum of London and is the co-director of the follow-up Pathways to Ancient Britain project. He studied anthropology at University College London and holds a PhD in Anatomical Science, and a DSc in Anatomical Science both from Bristol University. Stringer is author of many scientific papers and books, here are a few to mention: Lone Survivors: How We Came to Be the Only Humans on Earth, Britain: One Million Years of the Human Story & Our Human Story. Stay tuned for his upcoming book! Topics: Welcome Chris Stringer to The Rhys Show!: (00:00:00) Putting in context: understand time period from 7MM years ago through twelve thousand years ago: (00:02:11) The story from 7MM years ago to the Neolithic revolution: (00:03:13) Reason for walking upright: (00:08:03) Transition from Australopithecines to humans: (00:11:30) The story from 2MM years ago: about Homo erectus and Homo luzonensis the dwarf species: (00:15:10) From 2MM years ago to 200 thousand years ago: How did Homo Sapiens emerge and the oldest human dna recovered : (00:20:03) What makes us different in the skeleton compared to other humans: (00:26:12) About Denisovans: Discovery of Homo Longi “Dragon Man” in China: (00:27:42) About Denisovans: discovery of the whole genome of a new kind of human in Siberia and the Neanderthal & Denisovan hybrid: (00:31:15) Behavioral modernity and the beginning of language: (00:35:53) 60000 years ago: what cultural evolution looked like back then and how ideas spread: (00:42:03) Thoughts on gene-culture coevolution: (00:46:38) Looking ahead on ideas from a historical fossil perspective: (00:48:12) Overrated & underrated questions about fire, tools and being in groups: (00:49:42) Wrap-up: (00:51:35) Mentioned resources: Archaeological site of Atapuerca: Story of “Dragon Man” skull discovery in the river Songhua, Harbin, 1933: Connect with Chris Stringer: Web Natural History Museum: Twitter: