How early humans
migrated and mixed
Denisova Cave
RUssia
Homo sapiens are the only humans
left on Earth today, but at one point
we shared the planet with other
species of ancestral humans,
collectively known as hominins.
As climates and ecological
opportunities shifted, hominins
migrated out of Africa,
reconnecting and interbreeding
with the descendants of their
relatives who had made similar
journeys thousands of years before.
Harbin
skull site
Grotte
Mandrin
Asia
France
Baishiya
Karst Cave
Jebel Irhoud
Oldest known
Homo sapiens fossil
~300,000 years ago
Cobra Cave
China
Morocco
TAIWAN
Pacific
ocean
Laos
Africa
Migration waves
Later Homo sapiens
Early Homo sapiens
atlantic
ocean
Homo erectus
Indian
ocean
Australia
500 mi
500 km
Jason Treat, Patricia Healy, Rosemary Wardley, and Eve Conant, NGM Staff.
Chris Stringer, Natural History Museum London; John Hawks, University of Wisconsin;
Laura Shackelford, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Ludovic Slimak, University of
Toulouse III; Michael Petraglia, Griffith University; Frédérik Saltré, University of Technology
Sydney, Natural Earth Data.
How early humans migrated and mixed
Homo sapiens are the only humans left on Earth today, but at one point we shared
the planet with other species of ancestral humans, collectively known as hominins.
As climates and ecological opportunities shifted, hominins migrated out of Africa,
reconnecting and interbreeding with the descendants of their relatives who had
made similar journeys thousands of years before.
Denisova Cave
RUssia
Harbin
skull site
Grotte
Mandrin
Asia
France
Baishiya
Karst Cave
Jebel Irhoud
Oldest known
Homo sapiens fossil
~300,000 years ago
Morocco
Cobra Cave
China
TAIWAN
Pacific
ocean
Laos
Africa
Migration waves
Later Homo sapiens
Early Homo sapiens
atlantic
ocean
Homo erectus
Indian
ocean
Australia
500 mi
500 km
Jason Treat, Patricia Healy, Rosemary Wardley, and Eve Conant, NGM Staff.
Chris Stringer, Natural History Museum London; John Hawks, University of Wisconsin;
Laura Shackelford, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Ludovic Slimak, University of
Toulouse III; Michael Petraglia, Griffith University; Frédérik Saltré, University of
Technology Sydney, Natural Earth Data.
How early humans
migrated and mixed
Homo sapiens are the only humans
left on Earth today, but at one point
we shared the planet with other
species of ancestral humans,
collectively known as hominins.
As climates and ecological
opportunities shifted, hominins
migrated out of Africa, reconnecting
and interbreeding with the
descendants of their relatives
who had made similar journeys
thousands of years before.
Migration waves
Homo Erectus migration outside Africa
~1.8 million years ago
Denisova Cave,
Grotte
Mandrin,
Harbin
skull site,
Russia
Baishiya
Karst Cave,
France
China
Cobra Cave,
China
Laos
Early wave of Homo sapiens out of Africa
~300,000 years ago
Baishiya
Karst Cave,
Jebel Irhoud,
Cobra Cave,
China
Morocco
Laos
Later wave of Homo sapiens out of Africa
~60,000 years ago
Denisova Cave,
Grotte
Mandrin,
Russia
France
Jason Treat, Patricia Healy, Rosemary
Wardley, and Eve Conant, NGM Staff.
Chris Stringer, Natural History Museum
London; John Hawks, University of
Wisconsin; Laura Shackelford, University
of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Ludovic
Slimak, University of Toulouse III; Michael
Petraglia, Griffith University; Frédérik
Saltré, University of Technology
Sydney, Natural Earth Data.