Is it fair to say that <i>anatomically modern</i> humans happened after leaving Africa? Sure some more changes happened; change continued in Africa as well. And the Neanderthal 2-6% is probably not that significant.<p>Another interpretation is, moving to Northern climates with reduced sunlight resulted in decreased melanin (to ensure sufficient vitamin D) which allowed more ultraviolet damage thus increased mutations (blue eyes, red hair and so on). In this view, Africa retains &#x27;modern human anatomy&#x27;; the rest of the world is a sort of Galapagos Bird situation.