After learning about the founder effect (genetic variability increasing closer to Africa), I’m interested in knowing where, and which ethnic groups from Africa did humans from outside of Africa come from (Europeans, Asians, Native Americans etc.). Is this question even answerable? Thanks.
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Modern humans first left Africa through the Bab-el-Mandeb – the strait between Africa and Arabia which was solid land at the time – and went on to settle Asia and Australia. Then they’ve left through Levant (the place where Israel is now) and settled Middle East and Europe. But it’s not all so clear-cut. For example, Levant was first occupied by Neanderthals, then moderns moved in, but then they’ve left and Neanderthals appeared again, and then finally moderns replaced them for a second time. And linking genetics to this is very sketchy. We actually don’t know about it much beyond the fact that all moderns outside of Africa cross-bred with Neanderthals.
Also locations in Africa are irrelevant to founder effect. One thing we should keep in mind that the size of humanity was very small at that time. Entire continents only had like a few dozen thousand people living in them.
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