Dali skull examination: Throws African origins hypothesis up in air?

Eve Out of Africa has been a favorite narrative particularly in academia, liberal media and even Hollywood since the late 1970s.  It’s also been a sense of pride for African continentals, Afro-ethnics and Black Nationalists.

Vanessa Taylor, a popular YouTube celebrity and black nationalist wrote on her channel November, 2014:

EveOutofAfrica2 » New study of Dali skull in China suggests Out of Asia origins for modern humans » Human Evolution News » 1The idea that a African Woman, “Mitochondrial Eve”, is the woman from whom all people on earth inherit their DNA Is proven to be a scientific fact.

But over the years Out of Africa has taken some hits in the paleontology and anthropology communities.  Within the last two years, criticism of OOA has accelerated.

As highlighted here at this site, even the much loved and respected Chris Stringer, an original advocate of OOA, was one of the first to go wobbly:

“‘Modernity’ was not a package that had a single African origin in one time, place, and population, but was a composite whose elements appeared, and sometimes disappeared, at different times and places… a recent African origin still represents the predominant (but not exclusive) mode of evolution for H. sapiens. Rather than saying ‘we are all multiregionalists… it would be more appropriate to say ‘we are all out-of-Africanists who accept some multiregional contributions’ — Science Direct, 2014

Dali skull from China shows both modern and archaic features

EveOutofAfrica3 » New study of Dali skull in China suggests Out of Asia origins for modern humans » Human Evolution News » 2

nephicod.com

Now the death knell for Out of Africa hypothesis may be on its way.  Dr. Shi Huang, professor of epigenetics and evolution, and a favorite of this website (see “Afros more archaic…”, Jan. 6), Tweeted out on Jan. 6:

Tweeted out on Jan. 6, that the “long awaited detailed investigation by Prof. Wu Xinshi into the 250k year old Dail skull from China has just been published as a book (in Chinese).  It shows both modern and archaic features, and appears to be on its way to modern humans.” [Emphasis added]

Brief description of the Dali skull from Britanica.com:

1978 discovery of a well-preserved cranium that is about 200,000 years old. It resembles that of Homo erectus in having prominent browridges, a receding forehead, a ridge along the rear of the skull, and thick cranial walls.

“China may contain the best evidence for supporting the Multiregional Model… a couple of skulls dated to roughly 100,000 years ago that seem to possess a mixture of classic Homo erectus and Homo sapiens traits.” — Donald Johanson, discoverer of Lucy, Australopithecus Afarensis – haygeneology.org

Regular readers of this site may be familiar with Wu Xinzhi.  He was mocked for his multiregional views in a BBC series in 2012. From our Racism vs. Race Realism page:

ShiHuangWuZhinshi » New study of Dali skull in China suggests Out of Asia origins for modern humans » Human Evolution News » 3

Twitter, Shi Huang

In the highly acclaimed 2013 documentary “The Incredible Journey,” Alice Roberts confronted Dr. Wu in the BBC documentary:

“Professor Wu… I’m a complete novice… but I look at this modern skull here, this 30,000 year old skull from Zhuokoudian, and this looks quite similar to me to other skulls from Europe.” (BBC, 40 min. mark).

As early as 2017 there were hints Roberts and other “Evists” were about to proven wrong. Highlighted here at our site:

The famous Dali skull from China’s Shaanxi province has since been reanalyzed, strongly suggesting a continuum from Homo erectus to modern Han Chinese, (Newsweek, Nov 2017).

More from the 2017 Newsweek piece:

 Xinzhi Wu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing believed that due to the overwhelming physical similarities, Homo erectus must have shared DNA with Homo sapiens. After decades of this idea being dismissed by mainstream academia, Wu and a colleague, Sheela Athreya of Texas A&M University, recently reanalyzed the Dali skull and found it may force us to rewrite our evolutionary history after all. It’s incredibly similar to two separate Homo sapiens skulls previously found in Morocco.

Now with the release of Dr. Wu’s book, Dr. Roberts and other agenda driven anthropologists may soon be forced to reevaluate their allegiances to Eve.

Note – Watch Vanessa Taylor’s video 2014, where she argues the case, that [It is] “the African woman from which all human beings descend.”

 

 

Eric

Author Eric

FSU grad, US Navy Veteran. Houston, Texas

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  • Phil78 says:

    Funny, I actually read the study and it explained that the back of the head was archaic and related to Local Erectus. The face, while derived, was closer to non- East Asian fossils from Western Eurasia.

    The study explains that it was due to admixture from outside forced.

    Thus, the fossil doesn’t rule out African modernity.

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