(as a layman) The original Out of Africa hypothesis had the &quot;happy conclusion&quot; that anatomically modern humans (AMH) evolved in a small group within Africa and then migrated out to populate the rest of the world, displacing (and not interbreeding with) older hominids. And everyone on earth is a descendent of that small first group, so we&#x27;re all one coherent happy family.<p>The evolving picture today appears much more likely that some not-quite AMHs migrated from Africa to Arabia where they lived alongside and interbred with already-present Neanderthal culture, became anatomically modern and developed Upper Paleolithic tools&#x2F;culture (which were perhaps actually an evolution of Neanderthal culture), spent a while fairly isolated and evolving in Arabia, and eventually as AMHs migrated out to displace&#x2F;interbreed with the planet&#x27;s other hominids.<p>So, awkward because it&#x27;s a much more complex, convoluted story, with a lot more space for different populations of humans to have significant genetic differences. You&#x27;re also left with Africa potentially having a population of pre-AMH homo sapiens and other hominids, with only quite recent back-migration admixing in &quot;modern human&quot; DNA.