At 07:01 2000-02-04 -0800, you wrote:
>Tommy Tyberg wrote
>> I am perfectly aware that the human species is remarkably homogenous
>from a
>> genetical point of view, probably mostly because we are an extremely
>young
>> species (200-300,000 years?).
>
>Tommy do you have any evidence of Homo sapiens from such a depth. I am
>only aware of H.sapiens from Klassies River and other sites in South
>Africa from about 130-150,000 years. This seems to accord best with
>the genetic evidence for the date at which human species began to
>diverge too.
>
Klasies River mouth is probably slightly younger than that (last
interglacial). There are a number of probably "transitional" hominids in
the late Middle Pleistocene of Africa such as Kabwe, Ngaloba and Djebel
Irhoud. The oldest "fully modern" is probably Omo/Kibish at ca 130,000 BP,
but I can assure You that unless the fossil record is EXTREMELY good (which
it isn't for humans) the oldest fossil will underestimate the age of a
taxon by quite a lot.
Unfortunately we can't measure the time of divergence between H. sapiens
and other hominids since they aren't around to be sequenced any longer. If
we manage to sequence more neanderthalis and erectus DNA we might know in
the future.
The genetic evidence You mention is presumably the "genetic Eve" or
"African Eve", the last common female ancestor of the entire human species.
Unfortunately there is no way of telling whether she belonged to H. sapiens
or to another ancestral species. We can only tell that she existed, (very)
approximately how long ago it was, and that she probably lived in Africa.
Tommy Tyrberg