5 June 2009
Did population density create modern humans?
by Kate Melville

A controversial new study in the journal Science argues that increasing population density, rather than growth in the power of the human brain, is what catalyzed the emergence of modern human behavior. The University College London (UCL) scientists behind the study say that high population density leads to greater exchange of ideas and skills and prevents the loss of new innovations. It is this skill maintenance, they contend, combined with a greater probability of useful innovations, which led to modern human behavior appearing at different times in different parts of the world.

In the study, the UCL team found that complex skills learnt across generations can only be maintained when there is a critical level of interaction between people. Using computer simulations of social learning, they showed that high and low-skilled groups could coexist over long periods of time and that the degree of skill they maintained depended on local population density or the degree of migration between them.

Using genetic estimates of population size in the past, the team went on to show that density was similar in sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and the Middle-East when modern behavior first appeared in each of these regions. The paper also points to evidence that population density would have dropped for climatic reasons at the time when modern human behavior temporarily disappeared in sub-Saharan Africa.

"Our paper proposes a new model for why modern human behavior started at different times in different regions of the world, why it disappeared in some places before coming back, and why in all cases it occurred more than 100,000 years after modern humans first appeared," explains UCL's Adam Powell. "By modern human behavior, we mean a radical jump in technological and cultural complexity, which makes our species unique. This includes symbolic behavior, such as abstract and realistic art, and body decoration using threaded shell beads, ochre or tattoo kits; musical instruments; bone, antler and ivory artifacts; stone blades; and more sophisticated hunting and trapping technology."

While modern humans have been around for at least 160,000 years, there is no archaeological evidence of any technology beyond basic stone tools until around 90,000 years ago. In Europe and western Asia this advanced technology and behavior exploded around 45,000 years ago when humans arrived there, but doesn't appear in eastern and southern Asia and Australia until much later, despite a human presence. In sub-Saharan Africa the situation is more complex. Many of the features of modern human behavior are found some 90,000 years ago but then seem to disappear around 65,000 years ago, before re-emerging some 40,000 years ago.

"Scientists have offered many suggestions as to why these cultural explosions occurred where and when they did, including new mutations leading to better brains, advances in language, and expansions into new environments that required new technologies to survive. The problem is that none of these explanations can fully account for the appearance of modern human behavior at different times in different places, or its temporary disappearance in sub-Saharan Africa," noted UCL's Professor Stephen Shennan.

"We often imagine some sudden critical change, a bit like when the black monolith appears in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. In reality, there is no evidence of a big change in our biological makeup when we started behaving in an intelligent way. Our model can explain this even if our mental capacities are the same today as they were when we first originated as a species some 200,000 years ago," added co-researcher Mark Thomas. "Ironically, our finding that successful innovation depends less on how smart you are than how connected you are seems as relevant today as it was 90,000 years ago."

Related:
Ancient diaspora was a manly affair
Neanderthals' Last Hurrah Surprisingly Sophisticated
Language-Gene Evolution Shared By Humans And Neanderthals
Migration Out Of Africa May Have Occurred Later Than Previously Thought
Did Civilization Emerge Thanks To A Change In The Weather?

Source: University College London