History Out of Asia theory

replica of homo erectus ( peking man ) skull china.

later, discovery of peking man persuaded anthropologists until 1930s asia cradle of human species. william boyd dawkins wrote tropical region of asia probable birthplace of human race . british anthropologist alfred cort haddon wrote there reason believe mankind did not originate in africa; main races in continent reached southern asia .

apart eugene dubois, few of human origin theorists visited asia see if ideas valid or not. changed in 1920s well-funded expedition carried out in asia called central asiatic expeditions. expedition, led roy chapman andrews, visited parts of central asia including china , mongolia search origins of humankind.

paleontologists believed humans originated in asia include johan gunnar andersson, otto zdansky , walter w. granger. 3 of these scientists known visiting china , work , discoveries excavating sites @ zhoukoudian yielded remains of so-called peking man (homo erectus pekinensis). further funding excavations carried out davidson black key proponent of out of asia theory. because of finds in zhoukoudian, such peking man, focus of paleoanthropological research moved entirely asia, until 1930.

the explorer roy chapman andrews along henry fairfield osborn led several expeditions north china , mongolia 1922 1928 known central asiatic expeditions setting out try find earliest human remains in asia, andrews , team found many other finds, such dinosaur bones , fossil mammals , notably first known dinosaur nests full of eggs. andrews main account of these expeditions can found in book new conquest of central asia.

in andrews 1926 book on trail of ancient man, henry fairfield osborn noted in preface birthplace of modern humans found in asia , had predicted decades earlier before asiatic expeditions carried out. key proponent of out of asia theory of era william diller matthew took part in central asiatic expeditions; matthew known influential 1915 article climate , evolution . matthew s theory climate change how organisms came live find them today in opposition theory of continental drift. basic premise cyclical changes in global climate along prevailing tendency mammals disperse north south account odd geographic patterns of living mammals, believed humans , many other groups of modern mammals first evolved in northern areas of globe, central asia because of shifting climatic circumstances, matthew firmly placed hominid origins in central asia claimed high plateaux of tibet forcing ground of mammalian evolution.

the latest defenders of out of asia theory included henry fairfield osborn, davidson black, , william king gregory. henry fairfield osborn best known dawn man theory of human origins wrote found in tibet , mongolia. osborn firmly believed asia had been cradle of humankind. davidson black writing paper in 1925 titled asia , dispersal of primates wrote origins of man found in tibet, british india, yung-ling , tarim basin of china, last paper published in 1934 before death argued human origins in eastern asian context. william king gregory wrote tarim desert place human origins.

von koenigswald found first gigantopithecus tooth in hong kong in 1935, continued support out of asia theory.