ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Recent African origin of modern humans

Okay buddy, let me explain to you the recent African origin of modern humans in a way that a 5-year-old can understand.

Do you know that humans are not the only species in this world? There were different species of humans that existed before us. One of them was the Neanderthals. They were a different type of humans who lived in Europe and parts of Asia.

Now, let's talk about our ancestors. Humans evolved from a group of apes over millions of years ago. The first humans lived in Africa around 200,000 years ago. They looked very different from us but they were still humans.

These early humans started to spread out from Africa to different parts of the world. This happened in stages over a period of thousands of years. Some of them went to Asia and some went to Europe.

However, the majority of these early humans stayed in Africa. Over time, they evolved and changed until they became the modern humans that we are today.

Scientists call this process the recent African origin of modern humans. This basically means that we all came from Africa, and our ancestors slowly evolved over time until they became the humans that we are today.

So, to sum it up, humans originated in Africa a long time ago, and over time, they evolved and spread around the world. But the majority of modern humans are still descendants of those early humans who stayed in Africa and evolved into what we are today.