In this interview for Nutcracker Man, Chris Stringer addresses some key recent discussions in the human evolution field, such as:
- The origin of the anatomically modern humans. The frontier between ‘archaic’ and ‘modern’ Homo sapiens.
- Reassessment of the Homo heidelbergensis species.
- Early and late dispersals of modern humans outside Africa.
- Behavioural modernity vs. Anatomical modernity.
Finally, he talks about a new book he is working on.
Chris Stringer is one of the most important researchers in the field of human evolution. He is Research Leader in Human Origins at the Natural History Museum and previously director of the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain project. His work is searchable on the Museum’s website and you can follow him on twitter.
1. The origin of the so-called anatomically modern humans is not so clear now in the post-Neanderthal genome era. In 2016, you argued a new paradigm by setting the origin of our species Homo sapiens back to 500 K years ago rather than 200 K. What is the rationale for that? What is for you an ‘archaic’ Homo sapiens? And what is the frontier between ‘archaic’ and ‘modern’ Homo sapiens?