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Modelling Human Evolution

Different disciplines meet on common ground when Massey University mathematician Michael Hendy and biologist David Penny get together to search for the answer to one of the great scientific mysteries -- the origin of Homo sapiens, the modern human race.

Hendy and Penny have been analysing genetic information in order to trace evolutionary history. The model they have developed supports the theory that all humans can be traced back to one individual in Africa, who has been dubbed "Eve". The researchers' theory suggests "Eve" probably lived among a human population of perhaps 5,000 to 10,000 individuals in East Africa, just south of what is now the Sahara Desert.

Penny says that the most likely scenario, based on the computer modelling they have done, was that the population Homo sapiens remained steady for about 200,000 years and then expanded rapidly out of Africa, replacing more ancient tribes as they arrived in each new area. The expansion would have occurred about 100,000 years ago.