Around 50,000 years ago, modern humans suddenly started leaving Africa. Over the course of the next 20,000 years, Homo sapiens pushed other hominid species to extinction and established populations in Australia, Asia, and Europe.y 100,000 years ago, several species of hominids populated the Earth. H. sapiens uslived in Africa, H. erectus in Southeast Asia and China, and Neandertals in Europe.