Assignment: Early Human Migrations
Assignment: Early Human Migrations
The fossil and genomic record tell us that our species originated in Africa around 200,000 years ago (These numbers might now go back further). The first 100,000 years were spent in Africa and soon after our species began to expand into different world regions.
What you are doing
Your task will be to explore the complex fossil and genetic history of modern humans as they left Africa for the first time.
For this webquest you will only be able to choose one of the following world regions:
The Americas (you will be including both North and South)
Australia
Europe
All the above world regions have complicated population histories that are the result of a number of populations that have come together to form the present population. What insight do genomic studies of ancient fossils and modern populations give us in reference to the number of founding populations that form your chosen world region?
What you have to do for points
All of the assigned world regions are composed of multiple Homo sapiens populations that arrived at different times to the current world region that you are exploring. What do genomic tell us in reference to the number of founding populations of your chosen world region and what does the data say about when the different populations arrived? Make sure you tell me how many different populations form your chosen population. Also, make sure you tell me when the different populations arrived.
Make sure you give citations
12.8 Discussion Board: Homo Sapiens
When we think of modern humans we often think of specific physical features along with cultural and linguistic attributes that define us. There are many things that we were not able to cover in this class that relate to our species but I would like you to share in this discussion board one thing that you thought was interesting to know about us or one thing that you would have wanted to know more about in relation to our species. Feel free to share your thoughts in an open ended but informed way! For your contribution you will receive participation points.
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
