Science: All humans spring from a common African ancestor despite the differences we see today in size, shape and colour, according to a leading anthropologist. The genetic differences that produce "race" are minor and deliver only superficial differences, he said.
Humans right around the world share key physical features such as body and skull shape, stated Prof Chris Stringer from the Natural History Museum in London. "Modern humans spread pretty rapidly from a shared ancestor, but racial differences only evolved after the shared traits," he said.
Prof Stringer was in Dublin yesterday to deliver a talk at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland to mark the opening of the college's new molecular and cellular therapeutics research centre.
He is one of the world's leading proponents of the "out of Africa" theory of human evolution that holds that all humans on the planet today are traced back to a shared African ancestor.
Physical shape and skin colour are only superficial differences and are accounted for by quite minor changes to our genetic blueprint, our DNA, he said.
"There is not much DNA involved in it, you don't need to change much to get those different features."
Modern humans are a very young species, Prof Stringer maintained. About 500,000 years ago one branch of the hominid family left Africa to migrate into Europe. These eventually became the Neanderthals, he said. We and other modern humans sprang later from those hominids who remained south of the Mediterranean in Africa.
The Neanderthals were the "natives of Europe" but questions remain about what caused them to die off.
"My own view was it was a combination of things," Prof Stringer said.
The dispersal of modern humans into their territories was probably a factor, but so too was the climate, he said.