Human Evolution in the Asia-Pacific Realm: Proceedings of the 1st Asia-Pacific Conference on Human Evolution (Editorial)

Abstract

A spate of recent discoveries has highlighted the complex and multidimensional nature of movements of hominins, and in particular Homo sapiens, from Africa into Asia and beyond (e.g. Clarkson et al., 2017; Aubert et al., 2018; Groucutt et al., 2018; Ni et al., 2021). The long-accepted idea of a single, late wave of migration of modern humans from Africa to Australia is being replaced by an understanding that there were several dispersal events, of varying levels of penetration and success, contributing to the full global expansion of humans (Rabett, 2018; Lee and Hudock, 2021). The Asia-Pacific region is key to understanding the timing, nature, and environmental and cultural context of the first and last of these migrations (e.g. Stewart et al., 2020; Zhang et al., 2018; Louys and Roberts, 2020; Roberts et al., 2020). While hominins moving out of Africa first encountered Asia, the Pacific, at the other end of the world, records the very last step of these movements. By examining the archaeological, palaeontological, and environmental records of these regions we can begin to develop an understanding of how both local and global factors have influenced the course and trajectory of human evolution outside of Africa.