ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Multiregional origin of modern humans

Okay kiddo, so a long time ago, before people had phones or cars or computers, there were different groups of humans living in different parts of the world. Some lived in Africa, some in Asia, and some in Europe.

Now, scientists think that all of these groups of humans eventually evolved and changed over time, until they became what we now call "modern humans" - that's us! But the question is - did all of these different groups of humans evolve independently, or were they all related to each other in some way?

Some scientists believe in something called the "Multiregional Origin" theory, which means they think that all of the different groups of humans evolved from a common ancestor, but they also evolved in response to the different environments they were living in. So the humans in Africa evolved differently from the humans in Europe or Asia because they had different challenges to overcome, like finding food or dealing with predators.

The Multiregional Origin theory also suggests that these different groups of humans mated with each other over time, and that's why we see some similarities and differences between different populations of modern humans today. For example, some people have darker skin, while others have lighter skin, and some people have straight hair while others have curly hair. These differences may have originated from the different traits that evolved in different parts of the world, but also from the interbreeding between these populations.

However, not everyone agrees with this theory, and some scientists think that modern humans actually evolved only in one place - Africa - and then spread out to other parts of the world. This is known as the "Out of Africa" theory. It's an ongoing debate among scientists, and there's still a lot we don't know about the origins of modern humans. But it's pretty cool to think about how all of us are related in some way, even if our ancestors came from different parts of the world!