Out of Eden Walk: The origin story of the human species is still being written
The origin story of the human species is far from set in stone.
But what is set in stone is the fossil evidence that scientists study as they piece together our origin story.
National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek is retracing the path to human migration and documenting it all in a project known as Out of Eden Walk.
“Every country that I go to, I try to connect with anthropologists [and] archeologists to kind of find out, ‘Hey, where do I go, if you were in my boots and walking through your country,’” Salopek told The World.
While walking through China, he paid a visit to the Academy of Sciences in Beijing.
Salopek shares more about his experience there, and something new he learned about human evolution, with The World’s Host Carolyn Beeler.
“It’s kind of a new frontier in paleoanthropology. It’s opening up, and it’s kind of like a golden age, if you will.”
Carolyn Beeler: Paul, while you were there, I understand that you saw a skull believed to have belonged to a now-extinct human species. Can you tell me about that skull and what it tells us?
Paul Salopek: Yeah. So, I had the great, rare privilege of seeing the actual skull. They were studying it. It’s about 146,000 years old. They’ve nicknamed it “Dragon Man.” There’s kind of an unusual backstory. It was dug up by a farmer in 1933 in Manchuria, way up in northern China. The guy basically tossed it in his closet, and it was only rediscovered in 2018 when they started applying modern genetic analyses. When they finally discovered that, actually, “Hey, this is really old,” and it’s from a very interesting part of the human story that there’s not much told about. Kind of pre-human, but you know, after the really, really early kind of species like [Homo] erectus.
So, what did Dragon Man tell us about our own evolution?
Well, you know, what I remind readers is that when the earliest human beings were walking out of Africa, it was not a depopulated landscape. The continents were inhabited, but just not by us. And it was this amazing time, Carolyn, when, if you and I were walking out of Africa, we’d know who we’d bump into over the next hill. It probably wasn’t us. It probably wasn’t Homo sapiens. It could have been a Neanderthal. It could have been something called a Denisovan. And these are cousins who are, you know, they may look a bit like us and even a lot like us, but they’re not the same species. It was a crowded planet at the time.
That’s a fun thing to envision when we’re thinking about this walk of human migration.
Yeah. I mean, we’re kind of the lonely ape now. We’re the only ones left because, as scientists have been telling me, soon after we appeared over the horizon, these other species disappeared. And there’s still a debate of how and why. But Dragon Man in China was probably a Denisovan. And the reason it was such an important find is that all scientists had, until this skull was analyzed, was like a pinky.
So, they had identified the whole species based on a pinky finger before finding the skull?
That’s right. It had been found in Siberia, back I think in 2010. The Chinese skull allowed them to paint a portrait for the first time. And this has been happening with other hominin fossils in China. A new one, called Yunxian 2, was recently studied and is really old. This guy was a million years ago, and that’s kind of upended even the timeline for human evolution.
Right. I understand that Yunxian 2 was a surprising find, and what we can conclude from it is still controversial. Can you tell me a little bit more about that?
Yunxian 2 is about a million years old, was found in Hebei province and, at the beginning, it kind of had the look of an erectus, but when they did genetic studies, they found it wasn’t quite that species. It might have been something a little bit closer to Neanderthals and humans. And if that’s true, it pushes back the origin of sapiens by hundreds of thousands of years, maybe even up to half a million.
And so the Chinese scientists have been taking to calling it a new species, Homo longi. But as you mentioned, it’s still not confirmed, and there’s still some debate.
And so the Chinese scientists have been taking to calling it a new species, Homo longi. But as you mentioned, it’s still not confirmed, and there’s still some debate.
And what would that mean for the whole “out of Africa” theory of human evolution, which is the basis for this very long walk you are taking?
Well, you know, it would suggest that there may have been a point of origin in Asia for Homo sapiens, if this, in fact, bears out. Again, very controversial. This question also leads to an interesting kind of version of what societies do, what modern human cultures do with these origin stories. … We want to be proud, we want to say, “Hey, the cradle of humankind was in Ethiopia, or South Africa or dot dot dot.” Now, some Chinese scientists are arguing that maybe it was the Far East, maybe it was China. So, politics gets mixed into this a little bit.
Do you think these scientists are facing political pressure to put forward the theory that this skull may belong to a very early human ancestor from China?
You know, I’ve interviewed Chinese paleoanthropologists, and they are top-notch. Qiaomei Fu at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, foremost, her lab is making all these incredible breakthroughs. But I will say that one scientist, when I was visiting the Academy of Sciences in China, did suggest off-the-record that there is pressure, coming from outside, coming from political quarters, to try to frame these discoveries as kind of “China first.” And you know what, I think that’s fair. But I think this happens again in many modern societies’ political systems. This is a common thing you have to weed out when you try to take a hard, square look at the science, not the politics.
And do you think that political pressure exists just as a point of pride for these countries, saying, you know, people might have come from here first?
What could be more of a feather in your cap to say, “Hey, human beings that took their first steps in our backyard,” right? So, that kind of nationalistic point of pride has in fact infected this whole realm of study for generations. That said, I think good science comes out of it. They’re amazing discoveries coming out of China.
So, taking a step back, you are on this epic walk tracing the path of human migration. At the Academy of Sciences in Beijing, you came face-to-face with some examples of early human ancestors who made that walk, or whose ancestors made it. How did that feel?
It was one of the rare privileges of this particular project, Carolyn, is that, I’m a journalist, but one of the fun things I get to do is I get to connect with these amazing people … Chinese, Kazakh, Turkish … all of them … this kind of sisterhood and brotherhood of scholars across the world who are trying to get into focus the picture of who we are and where we came from. So, I get to put my walking staff aside, pick up a notebook and go to places like the Academy of Sciences in Beijing to be shown this kind of amazing, cutting-edge science. It’s just, it’s a thrill. It’s a real privilege.
Parts of this interview have been edited for length and clarity.
Writer and National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek has embarked on a 24,000-mile storytelling trek across the world called the “Out of Eden Walk.” The National Geographic Society, committed to illuminating and protecting the wonders of our world, has funded Salopek and the project since 2013. Explore the project here. Follow the journey on X at @PaulSalopek, @outofedenwalk and also at @InsideNatGeo.
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