GENETIC-EVIDENCE ON MODERN HUMAN ORIGINS

A review of generic evidence leads to the following conclusions concer ning human population history: (1) Between 33,000 and 150,000 years ag o the human population expanded from an initial size of perhaps 10,000 breeding individuals, reaching a size of at least 300,000. (2) Althou gh the initial population was small, it contained at least 1000 breedi ng individuals, (3) The human races separated several tens of thousand s of years before their separate expansions. (4) Before their expansio ns the separate racial populations were small. These inferences are in consistent with both the multiregional and the replacement models of m odern human origins. They support the ''weak Garden of Eden'' hypothes is, which holds that the human populations separated some 100,000 year s ago but did not expand until tens of thousands of years later.