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In chronological order, the genus Homo contains three species:

There is much debate about the taxonomy of Homo habilis and Homo erectus and there are even disagreements about how the genus itself should be defined.

Nevertheless, the transformation from Australopithecus to Homo is describable, at least in terms of cranial anatomy.

There is also debate about where modern humans originated:

  • in Africa?
  • or all over the world simultaneously?
 

       
 

Origins of The First Humans

There are currently two main hypotheses for the origin of modern humans (see [Boyd & Silk 1997] pp 486-498; [Lewin 1993] for reviews):

  • did anatomically modern humans evolve in Africa?
  • or all over the world simultaneously?

The evidence comes from molecular (including nuclear DNA and mitochondrial DNA studies), fossil, and linguistic data.