Genetic 'Adam' and 'Eve' uncovered

[hh5]

Almost every man alive can trace his origins to one man who lived about 135,000 years ago, new research suggests. And that ancient man likely shared the planet with the mother of all women.

The findings, detailed Thursday, Aug. 1, in the journal Science, come from the most complete analysis of the male sex chromosome, or the Y chromosome, to date. The results overturn earlier research, which suggested that men's most recent common ancestor lived just 50,000 to 60,000 years ago.

Despite their overlap in time, ancient "Adam" and ancient "Eve" probably didn't even live near each other, let alone mate. [The 10 Biggest Mysteries of the First Humans]

"Those two people didn't know each other," said Melissa Wilson Sayres, a geneticist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the study.

 

Adam and Eve?

These primeval people aren't parallel to the biblical Adam and Eve. They weren't the first modern humans on the planet, but instead just the two out of thousands of people alive at the time with unbroken male or female lineages that continue on today.

The rest of the human genome contains tiny snippets of DNA from many other ancestors they just don't show up in mitochondrial or Y-chromosome DNA, Hammer said. (For instance, if an ancient woman had only sons, then her mitochondrial DNA would disappear, even though the son would pass on a quarter of her DNA via the rest of his genome.)

As a follow-up, Bustamante's lab is sequencing Y chromosomes from nearly 2,000 other men. Those data could help pinpoint precisely where in Africa these ancient humans lived.

"It's very exciting," Wilson Sayres told LiveScience. "As we get more populations across the world, we can start to understand exactly where we came from physically."

 

 

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/08/02/genetic-adam-and-eve-uncovered/#ixzz2awYgN4X9

 

 

 

Seems to remind me of a Star Trek: The Next Generation

The Chase S6 Ep20 (45:21)

http://www.cbs.com/shows/star_trek_the_next_generation/video/QQpYPBxrMZfrNRkQwkkur9lvjWmdrfEk/star-trek-the-next-generation-the-chase

 

lol, gene archeology

[JamesSavik]

Her name was Hera.

[Former Member]

Really interesting.  Thanks for sharing!!

[Bill W]

Although they've found the genetic Adam and Eve, it does little to support the Biblical idea, since they didn't exist close to each other and probably never met.  That means there were others around too and their offspring eventually met up and reproduced, thus proving they were genetically more viable and sustainable.  It also means that racial differences can indicate racial superiority/inferiority, since we all have the same ancestors.