Tantalising research by a Stellenbosch genetics professor and her colleagues is putting flesh onto the skeletons of the complex, fascinating history of humankind. That it all began in Africa is old hat. But the story of what happened afterwards is constantly being modified. The idea of modern humans evolving from a common ancestor has long been thrown into disarray by palaeontologists, who keep searching for the first in the line, but who instead keep digging up fossils that require theories to be adapted. ..