Just in case, the words below are not mine. This was posted in the
H-World list
>
> Further proof based on genetic research in support of the "Out of Africa"
> thesis in a New York Times article seems to demonstrate conclusively that
> homo sapiens moved out of the continent as late as 52,000 years ago.
>
>
> Study Supports Theory That Modern Humans Originated in Africa
> http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/07/science/07HUMAN-ORIGINS.html
>
> December 7, 2000
>
> By REUTERS
>
> LONDON - The "Out of Africa" theory that modern man evolved there and
> spread across the world got a boost on Wednesday with new research
> tracing humans from diverse ethnic and geographical backgrounds
> back to that continent.
>
> Swedish scientists used mitochondrial DNA -- genetic material in a
> cell that is passed unchanged from mother to child -- from 53
> people to show that the human evolutionary tree is firmly rooted in
> Africa.
>
> ``This is the first study in which the genome is being used in a
> sufficiently large number of individuals to come up with very
> strong evidence, in this case supporting the 'Out of Africa'
> theory,'' Professor Ulf Gyllensten said in a telephone interview.
>
> The biologist and geneticist at the University of Uppsala said that
> even scientists who believe modern humans evolved simultaneously in
> several parts of the globe would now have to acknowledge that
> humans originate largely from Africa.
>
> ``It could be the end of the argument so far that there is an
> African origin,'' Gyllensten added.
>
> Gyllensten and his colleagues traced the ancestry of 53 people from
> DNA blood samples that were used in another scientific study. The
> people came from different continents and populations.
>
> Because mitochondrial DNA is inherited only via the mother, it is a
> good way to trace genetic lineage.
>
> The results, which are published in the science journal Nature,
> show that all the people tested have origins in Africa and that the
> migration from the continent began 52,000 years ago, not 100,000
> years ago as was previously thought.
>
> ``Our results point to something around 52,000 years ago. Other
> estimates have pointed to 100,000 years ago but I think we have
> more accurate information,'' according to Gyllensten.
>
> In a commentary on the research in Nature, S. Blair Hedges, of
> Pennsylvania State University, described the Swedish research as
> the most thorough analysis yet of divergences in human
> mitochondrial DNA.
>
> ``The upshot is a robust tree rooted in Africa, which times the
> exodus from Africa to within the past 100,000 years. With this
> result, the pendulum swings further toward the claim that modern
> humans, Homo sapiens, originated in Africa,'' Hedges said.
>
> He added that the evolutionary tree, which has more data than
> similar studies, indicates that some Africans are closer to
> Europeans and Asians than to other Africans.
>
