In light of the recent results in human evolutionary history some readers have appealed to me to create some sort of clearer infographic. There's a lot to juggle in your head when it comes to the new models and the errors and uncertainties in estimates derived from statistical inference. Words are not always optimal, and there's often something left out. So I spent a few hours creating a series of maps which distill my own best guess as to what occurred over the past 100,000 years. I want to emphasize that this purely my own interpretation, based on what I know. This is naturally going to be biased (I don't know as much about uniparental lineages as some of my readers, and have a weak grasp of a lot of morphological changes, etc.). But it is a place to start. I've put the maps into a slideshow. Please observe that ...
The last 100,000 years in human history
Explore a unique interpretation of human evolutionary history over the past 100,000 years through engaging maps and insights.
More on Discover
Stay Curious
SubscribeTo The Magazine
Save up to 40% off the cover price when you subscribe to Discover magazine.
Subscribe