How Did Ancient Humans Populate the Planet?

Every person alive today has ancestors who lived in Africa. So how did a few small bands of hunter-gatherers end up on every continent except Antarctica? This is the story of how ancient humans populated the planet: a genetic clue that our ancestors may once have nearly died out, the desert that turned green and opened a door out of Africa, the Neanderthal DNA many of us still carry, sea crossings to Australia in boats no one has ever found, and a land bridge to the Americas that now lies under the ocean. Then, how farming turned a few million people into more than 8 billion. Every study mentioned in this video is linked below. SOURCES The Cradle Jebel Irhoud, about 300,000 years old (Hublin et al. 2017, Nature): https://doi.org/10.1038/nature22336 Omo Kibish, at least 230,000 years old (Vidal et al. 2022, Nature): https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04... Ancestral population bottleneck (Hu et al. 2023, Science): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37651... Stepping Out of Africa Ostrich eggshell water containers (Texier et al. 2010, PNAS): https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0913047107 Green Sahara periods and Earth's orbit (Larrasoaña et al. 2013, PLoS ONE): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles... Alathar footprints, Saudi Arabia (Stewart et al. 2020, Science Advances): https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/dramatic-c... Homo erectus at Dmanisi, Georgia (Lordkipanidze et al. 2013, Science): https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1238484 Denisovans and Denisovan DNA today (Reich et al. 2010, Nature): https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09710 Timing of Neanderthal mixing (Iasi et al. 2024, Science): https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adq3010 Denisovan gene and life at altitude in Tibet (Huerta-Sánchez et al. 2014, Nature): https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13408 Neanderthal immune genes (Dannemann et al. and Deschamps et al. 2016): https://popular-archaeology.com/artic... The Three Great Paths The Pesse canoe, oldest known boat: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pesse Australia by 65,000 years ago (Clarkson et al. 2017, Nature): https://doi.org/10.1038/nature22968 The case for a later arrival (2025, Archaeology in Oceania): https://doi.org/10.1002/arco.70002 Island-hopping route to Australia (2018): https://www.uow.edu.au/media/2018/isl... Founding population of Australia (Bradshaw et al. 2019, Nature Ecology & Evolution): https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/58684/ Bacho Kiro Cave, Bulgaria (Hublin et al. 2020, Nature): https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-22... Yana, Arctic Siberia (Pitulko et al. 2004, Science): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14704... Mediterranean shells found 900+ km inland (Nițu et al. 2019, PLoS ONE): https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.... Tianyuan Cave, China (Fu et al. 2013, PNAS): https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1221359110 Dugout canoe voyage from Taiwan to Yonaguni (Kaifu et al. 2025, Science Advances): https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adv5507 Crossing to the Americas Beringian standstill (Tamm et al. 2007, PLoS ONE): https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.... The ice-free corridor (Pedersen et al. 2016, Nature): https://doi.org/10.1038/nature19085 Monte Verde, Chile (Dillehay et al. 2008, Science): https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1156533 The kelp highway (Erlandson et al. 2007): https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/700... White Sands footprints (Bennett et al. 2021, Science): https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/702... White Sands dates confirmed (2023, Science): https://www.llnl.gov/article/50431/st... Fell's Cave, southern Patagonia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cueva_Fell Where farming began (Larson et al. 2014, PNAS): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles... World population over time (Our World in Data): https://ourworldindata.org/population... Subscribe to Everyday Ancient for the ancient stories behind everyday life. #AncientHumans #HumanEvolution #Prehistory #OutOfAfrica #HumanMigration #Archaeology #IceAge #History