Although often debated, most scholars agree that modern human behavior can be characterized by abstract thinking, planning depth, symbolicbehavior (e.g., art, ornamentation, music), exploitation of large game, and blade technology, among others.
All mitochondrial genomes today should be traceable to a single woman, a ‘mitochondrial Eve’. This woman, the researchers concluded, probably lived in Africa around 200,000 years ago.
Johanna Nichols – a linguist at the University of California, Berkeley – argued in 1998 that vocal languages must have begun diversifying in our species at least 100,000 years ago.
In human genetics, Y-MRCA – informally known as Y-chromosomal Adam – is the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) from whom all currently living men are descended patrilineally.
While early members of the genus Homo had used fire opportunistically for ages (e.g. in the aftermath of a lightning strike), the ability to create it on their own using flint vastly expanded its availability and usefulness.
