10 Most Important Scientific Discoveries Of 2019
1. We Further Refined The Location Of The Origin Of Our Species
We've known for a long time that humans originally came from Africa, but finding the exact location where homo sapiens sapiens first evolved has been tricky. Most humans from 200,000+ years ago never bothered to have their bones put in just the right place so they would fossilize, which has limited our understanding of this location to a generalized area.
A discovery made in November may have helped to further refine the place all humans originally came from, and it looks as if that location is modern-day Botswana. The findings came after a study of the maternal L0 mitochondrial DNA branch of contemporary southern Africans showed geographical isolation of modern humans to an area south of the Zambezi River.
The findings were published by anthropologist Vanessa Hayes, who said in a press conference that "everyone walking around today could trace their mitochondrial DNA back to this human homeland."
The study managed to do what no fossilized remains could, and while it may not be important to the average person to know where everyone came from, it sheds light on how we evolved as a species. Finding the specific location of the rise of modern anatomical humans helps us to better understand our migration out of Africa, and where we started as a species on Earth, some 200,000 years ago.