Editing Human evolution (section)

=== ''H. sapiens'' ===
{{Main|Archaic humans|Early modern human|Interbreeding between archaic and modern humans|Human#Evolution}}
[[File:Homo sapiens sapiens (Fundort Jebel Irhoud Marokko).jpg|thumb|200px|Reconstruction of early ''Homo sapiens'' from [[Jebel Irhoud]], Morocco {{c.|315 000 years BP}}]]
''H. sapiens'' (the adjective ''[[wikt:sapiens|sapiens]]'' is Latin for "wise" or "intelligent") emerged in Africa around 300,000 years ago, likely derived from ''[[H.&nbsp;heidelbergensis]]'' or a related lineage.<ref name="Schlebusch2017">{{cite journal |doi=10.1126/science.aao6266 |pmid=28971970 |title=Southern African ancient genomes estimate modern human divergence to 350,000 to 260,000 years ago |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |volume=358 |issue=6363 |pages=652–655 |date=2017 |last1=Schlebusch |first1=Carina M. |last2=Malmström |first2=Helena |last3=Günther |first3=Torsten |last4=Sjödin |first4=Per |last5=Coutinho |first5=Alexandra |last6=Edlund |first6=Hanna |last7=Munters |first7=Arielle R. |last8=Vicente |first8=Mário |last9=Steyn |first9=Maryna |last10=Soodyall |first10=Himla |last11=Lombard |first11=Marlize |last12=Jakobsson |first12=Mattias |bibcode=2017Sci...358..652S |s2cid=206663925 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Guardian">{{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/07/oldest-homo-sapiens-bones-ever-found-shake-foundations-of-the-human-story |title=Oldest ''Homo sapiens'' bones ever found shake foundations of the human story |last=Sample |first=Ian |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=June 7, 2017 |access-date=June 7, 2017 |archive-date=October 31, 2019 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20191031005024/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/07/oldest-homo-sapiens-bones-ever-found-shake-foundations-of-the-human-story |url-status=live}}</ref> In September 2019, scientists reported the computerized determination, based on 260 [[CT scan]]s, of a virtual [[Human skull|skull shape]] of the last common human ancestor to [[modern human]]s (''H. sapiens''), representative of the earliest modern humans, and suggested that modern humans arose between 260,000 and 350,000 years ago through a merging of populations in [[East Africa|East]] and South Africa.<ref name="NYT-20190910">{{cite news |last=Zimmer |first=Carl |author-link=Carl Zimmer |title=Scientists Find the Skull of Humanity's Ancestor — on a Computer: By comparing fossils and CT scans, researchers say they have reconstructed the skull of the last common forebear of modern humans |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/10/science/human-ancestor-skull-computer.html |archive-url= https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/10/science/human-ancestor-skull-computer.html |archive-date=January 1, 2022 |url-access=limited |date=September 10, 2019 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=September 10, 2019}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref name="NAT-20190910">{{cite journal |last1=Mounier |first1=Aurélien |last2=Lahr |first2=Marta |title=Deciphering African late middle Pleistocene hominin diversity and the origin of our species |journal=[[Nature Communications]] |volume=10 |issue=1 |page=3406 |doi=10.1038/s41467-019-11213-w |pmid=31506422 |pmc=6736881 |date=2019 |bibcode=2019NatCo..10.3406M}}</ref>

Between 400,000 years ago and the second interglacial period in the [[Middle Pleistocene]], around 250,000 years ago, the trend in [[Brain size#Cranial capacity|intra-cranial volume expansion]] and the elaboration of stone tool technologies developed, providing evidence for a transition from ''H.&nbsp;erectus'' to ''H.&nbsp;sapiens''. The direct evidence suggests there was a migration of ''H.&nbsp;erectus'' [[Recent African origin of modern humans|out of Africa]], then a further speciation of ''H.&nbsp;sapiens'' from ''H.&nbsp;erectus'' in Africa. A subsequent migration (both within and out of Africa) eventually replaced the earlier dispersed ''H.&nbsp;erectus''. This migration and origin theory is usually referred to as the "recent single-origin hypothesis" or "out of Africa" theory. ''H.&nbsp;sapiens'' [[Archaic human admixture with modern humans|interbred with archaic humans]] both in Africa and in Eurasia, in Eurasia notably with Neanderthals and Denisovans.<ref name="pmid21179161" /><ref name="Reich_2011" />

The [[Toba catastrophe theory]], which postulates a [[population bottleneck]] for ''H. sapiens'' about 70,000 years ago,<ref name="ambrose1998">{{cite journal |last=Ambrose |first=Stanley H. |date=June 1998 |title=Late Pleistocene human population bottlenecks, volcanic winter, and differentiation of modern humans |journal=Journal of Human Evolution |volume=34 |issue=6 |pages=623–651 |doi=10.1006/jhev.1998.0219 |issn=0047-2484 |pmid=9650103 |bibcode=1998JHumE..34..623A |s2cid=33122717}}</ref> was controversial from its first proposal in the 1990s and by the 2010s had very little support.<ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.1073/pnas.0909000107 |ref=CITEREFHuffothers2010 |first1=Chad D. |last1=Huff |first2=Jinchuan |last2=Xing |first3=Alan R. |last3=Rogers |first4=David |last4=Witherspoon |first5=Lynn B. |last5=Jorde |title=Mobile Elements Reveal Small Population Size in the Ancient Ancestors of ''Homo sapiens'' |journal=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America]] |volume=107 |issue=5 |pages=2147–2152 |date=January 19, 2010 |pmc=2836654 |pmid=20133859 |url= http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/01/06/0909000107.full.pdf+html |bibcode=2010PNAS..107.2147H |doi-access=free}}</ref> Distinctive [[human genetic variability]] has arisen as the result of the [[founder effect]], by [[Archaic human admixture with modern humans|archaic admixture]] and by [[Recent human evolution|recent evolutionary pressures]].