• Question: Thank you very much for this christmas lecture, I found it incredibly fascinating. My question is: in there anything in our genes to explain why modern humans spread around the globe, to remote islands (Hawaii etc) whereas other human species didn't?

    Asked by to James, Ed, Aoife, Anthony, Alice on 3 Jan 2019. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Ed Morrison

      Ed Morrison answered on 3 Jan 2019:

      The story of human colonization is amazing: from a tiny sub-population in Africa a couple of hundred thousand years ago to occupying most climates around the globe.

      The reasons are to due with human culture. Because we can make tools and transmit culturally acquired learning through language, we can advance technologically very rapidly. This in turn allowed humans to survive in new climates, find food, create shelter and so on.

      Other human species did occupy wide niches e.g. Neanderthals and Denisovans spread around Europe and Asia. Why they died out is still the subject of much debate – disease, smaller brains, or just bad luck.

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