[noch]

> [T]he mythos of people having popped out from the same area or region that they their most recent ancestors have lived […]

>> Genetic studies have put an end to that kind of speculation. Only crackpots and religious nuts are supporting alternatives.

David Reich (author of "Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the new science of the human past") says[^0]:

" The modern human lineage, leading to the great majority of the ancestors of people today, was probably in sub-Saharan Africa for the last 500,000 years at least. It might be much more. Certainly our main lineage was in Africa, probably 3-7 million years ago.

But in a period between about 2 million to 500,000 years ago, it's not at all clear where the main ancestors leading to modern humans were. There were humans throughout many parts of Eurasia and Africa with a parallel increase in brain size and not obviously closer ancestrality to modern humans in one place than in the other. It's not clear where the main lineages were. Maybe they were in both places and mixed to form the lineages that gave rise to people today.

There's been an assumption where Africa's been at the center of everything for many millions of years. Certainly it's been absolutely central at many periods in human history. But in this key period when a lot of important changes happen—when modern humans develop from Homo habilis and Homo erectus all the way to Homo heidelbergensis and the shared ancestor of Neanderthals, modern humans, and Denisovans— that time period which is when a lot of the important change happened, it's not clear, based on the archaeology and genetics, where that occurred as I understand it. " (emphasis mine throughout)

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[^0]: https://www.dwarkeshpatel.com/p/david-reich

[nabla9]

>But in this key period when a lot of important changes happen—when modern humans develop from Homo habilis and Homo erectus all the way to Homo heidelbergensis

That's a time period before homo sapiens, not after.

[themgt]

David Reich is widely acknowledged as a top if not the foremost leader in the field of ancient human origins, and he's talking about exactly the debate you claim is settled to everyone but crackpots. His interview with Dwarkesh Patel linked by OP is one of the most informative you'll find anywhere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Reich_(geneticist)