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Age of Our Ancestors-How Our Genetic Adam Is Much Younger than Genetic Eve
abcnews.go.com ^

Posted on 02/02/2004 12:31:53 AM PST by chance33_98

Age of Our Ancestors

How Our Genetic Adam Is Much Younger than Genetic Eve

Commentary By John Allen Paulos

Feb. 1 — A new book, The Journey of Man, demonstrates how recent advances in genetics, particularly those involving the Y-chromosome, allow us to follow the arc of human migration out of Africa, our ancestral home.

Although Neanderthals and other hominids related to Homo sapiens date back hundreds of thousands of years, the book's author, geneticist Spencer Wells, shows that our origins are much more recent. Presenting the work of Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Richard Lewontin, and other eminent researchers, Wells argues convincingly that all men on earth (the Y-chromosome is passed only from father to son) can trace their roots to a particular male who lived in Africa, almost 60,000 years ago.

Likewise, all humans on earth can trace their lineage through our maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA back to a particular woman, who lived in Africa roughly 150,000 years ago. This "Adam" is my great-grandfather roughly 2500 times removed and this "Eve" my great grandmother roughly 6500 times removed. (Yours too, so we're all distant cousins.)

In coming to these conclusions, Wells relies upon a variety of mathematical techniques, ranging from statistical tests to measure the similarities between and among the genomes of present-day populations to carbon dating and other methods commonly employed at archeological sites.

The probability of branching processes lends additional support as does empirical research on the world's various ethnic groups. Most revealing is the use of the rate at which random mutations naturally occur to infer the paths of our ancestors around the globe.

Family Recipes as a Metaphor

Wells employs a culinary metaphor to clarify the notion of a genetic Eve, whose existence was long disputed by those who believed that mankind developed independently in several locations around the world. Altering Wells' metaphor a little, let's imagine a small village that has been inhabited for millennia. Imagine further that we go way back in time and note that the few families in the village use different recipes for their primary meal, and that the recipes are handed down from mother to daughter only.

Very complex, the recipes can be modified in hundreds of ways — a different ingredient here, longer cooking time there, etc. — and every once in a while a daughter makes a tiny change in her mother's recipe, which she then passes down to her daughter(s). Sometimes because of accident, disease, or simply a line's not having any daughters, a family's recipe and its variants die out. In fact, let's assume that all but one of the original recipes and their variants disappear. Thus in the village we can now find only one of the dozen original recipes, dating back X thousand years, and its many variants.

If for the village we substitute Africa, and for recipes we substitute the human genome, the surviving original recipe is analogous to the genetic makeup of African Eve since all the surviving recipes derive from it just as we all can trace all our mitochondrial DNA back to a particular woman who lived 150,000 years ago.

And just as our mitochondrial DNA is inherited only through our mothers, the male Y-chromosome is passed only from fathers to sons. So let's invent another just-so story about, say, elaborate hunting rituals that are passed down from father to son with very rare changes. We again go back to a time when there were very few families and hence few different hunting rituals.

Once again, each of these elaborate hunting rituals changes very slowly. Furthermore, because of famine, disease, or not having any sons, a family's hunting ritual and its variants die out. Let's assume that all but one of the original rituals and their variants disappear. Thus in the village we can find only one of the few original rituals, dating back Y thousand years, and its many variants, and thus conclude that all existing rituals derive from the original one, the analogue of a genetic Adam.

The Paths We Took

Note that X and Y need not be equal since recipes and hunting rituals will no doubt change and die out at different rates, so our genetic Eve did not meet our genetic Adam (and both, of course, had parents, grandparents, and other progenitors).

There is, however, much more in Journey than this absence of a prehistoric romance. As mentioned, the bulk of the book examines how geneticists study small changes in the DNA of our Y-chromosomes and use the rate at which they naturally occur as a sort of molecular clock to determine when and where various groups and clans of our prehistoric ancestors split off and spread over the earth (along the coast of India to Australia, later into Eurasia, and then down to the Americas across the Bering Sea).

If we know where we originated, and if a distinct recipe or ritual and its descendants, to revert to our metaphor, appears only in a neighboring village, then this (along with much other evidence) indicates that these people left the original village at a certain time. And if their descendants' recipes and rituals appear only in an even more distant village, then these others left still later.

The common childhood game in which we change, a letter at a time, one sequence of letters into another — say GENE to GONE to GORE to MORE to MARE to MARS — also sheds some light on what geneticists do when analyzing the branching changes in the very long sequence of "letters" that constitute our DNA. If each of the changing sequences of letters also gave rise to other changing sequences of letters and if some of these sequences split off and moved to different physical locations, we would be led to the sort of considerations and methods that are described in The Journey of Man.

We've come a long way, and the fascinating, sometimes counterintuitive details of the trip are finally becoming a little clearer.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: archaeology; dna; genetics; ggg; godsgravesglyphs; history
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To: blam
Mankind may have evolved independently in several locations, but the DNA doesn't lie - if there was independent evolution, there was also convergence. So you've got to come with a theory that fits the evidence.
21 posted on 02/02/2004 9:19:41 AM PST by CobaltBlue
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To: Modernman
The DNA studies don't use bones. Certainly not for Y-chromosome DNA, it doesn't last long enough.

They've got ever larger pools of DNA from living people, and they use models of genetic drift to estimate the time it must have taken for the changes which they can see to have occurred. So if you want to reject the theory, the only thing that can be rejected is the timeline. That is the only guesstimate.
22 posted on 02/02/2004 9:23:04 AM PST by CobaltBlue
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To: CobaltBlue
So all humans living today can trace their ancestry to one man and one woman? Seems like I've heard that somewhere before.
23 posted on 02/02/2004 9:23:22 AM PST by razorbak
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To: razorbak
True, but they probably lived in Africa 120,000 years ago, and looked like this guy:


24 posted on 02/02/2004 9:28:23 AM PST by CobaltBlue
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To: razorbak

25 posted on 02/02/2004 9:31:03 AM PST by CobaltBlue
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To: KingNo155
Just because "Adam" died in Africa does not mean he lived there! Just because you find ones bones in a place does not mean he lived there! "Adam" could have wondered from place to place! "Adam" could be a person of special importance and his bones could have been taken to Africa as a sign of reverance!

This isn't about bones, nor where they are or are not. It's about genetic tracing.

26 posted on 02/02/2004 9:31:19 AM PST by Ichneumon
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To: razorbak
So all humans living today can trace their ancestry to one man and one woman?

No. All humans living today can trace their ancestry to one man who lived about 60,000 years ago, and all numans living today can trace ther ancestry to one woman who lived about 150,000 years ago. Were tests to be done with other genetic markers (if any be available), other results may obtain.

27 posted on 02/02/2004 9:33:15 AM PST by Doctor Stochastic (Vegetabilisch = chaotisch is der Charakter der Modernen. - Friedrich Schlegel)
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To: Brilliant
These days scientists spend a lot of effort trying to disprove the account of Genesis.

No they don't. They follow where the evidence leads. If that happens to disagree with the old story written down in Genesis -- or in the tales of the Norse gods, or native American origin stories, or Velikovski, Zeus, or whatever -- then that's just the way it goes. Old stories could have come from anywhere. The evidence comes from the actual history.

28 posted on 02/02/2004 9:34:38 AM PST by Ichneumon
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To: CobaltBlue
Nice threads for 120,000 years ago. Polyester?
29 posted on 02/02/2004 9:35:40 AM PST by Doctor Stochastic (Vegetabilisch = chaotisch is der Charakter der Modernen. - Friedrich Schlegel)
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To: Doctor Stochastic
I was assuming that the 60,000 year ago man was descended from the 120,000 year ago woman. It's a reasonable assumption, under the circumstances, but just an assumption on my part.
30 posted on 02/02/2004 9:37:27 AM PST by CobaltBlue
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To: Brilliant
These days scientists spend a lot of effort trying to disprove the account of Genesis. Maybe the whole thing is a big fraud.

Did they teach you that in Bible school?

31 posted on 02/02/2004 9:40:30 AM PST by CobaltBlue
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To: chance33_98
I personally will stick with the account as given in the book of Genesis, thank you very much.

Northern Baptists say "there ain't no hell"....southern Baptists say "the hell there ain't" !!!!!

If i am going to err, it will most certainly be on the side of caution. By the time you find out for sure whether or not there is a God and Heaven and Hell...if you are wrong, it will be a bit too late to change positions.
32 posted on 02/02/2004 9:47:43 AM PST by cajun-jack
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To: cajun-jack
If i am going to err, it will most certainly be on the side of caution. By the time you find out for sure whether or not there is a God and Heaven and Hell...if you are wrong, it will be a bit too late to change positions.

That's what they say about Hank, too.

33 posted on 02/02/2004 9:50:35 AM PST by Ichneumon
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To: chance33_98
Just as I thought. Men are more highly evolved than women.
34 posted on 02/02/2004 9:54:30 AM PST by colorado tanker ("There are but two parties now, Traitors and Patriots")
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To: Doctor Stochastic
Just don't drop an empty coke bottle where he might find it.
35 posted on 02/02/2004 9:54:54 AM PST by xp38
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To: Ichneumon
guess i need to buy another tube of chapstick cause i gotta lot more butt kissin to do.
36 posted on 02/02/2004 9:57:37 AM PST by cajun-jack
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To: razorbak
So all humans living today can trace their ancestry to one man and one woman? Seems like I've heard that somewhere before.

Not like this you haven't.

First, it's incorrect to say that "all humans living today can trace their ancestry to [just] one man and one woman". Genetically, we all have many ancestors and there is no one genetic male ancestor nor one genetic female ancestor, nor was there ever any time where there was just one pair of humans on the planet.

Second, as the article makes clear, the timing is inconsistent with the versions that you've "heard" before in certain books.

For a clearer understanding of what the difference is between a genetic common ancestor and a mitochondrial common ancestor, see this excellent interactive Flash webpage on tracing ancestry. First click on different descendants and note how they are all genetically descended from multiple ancestors, and how all the ancestors have left descendants. Then click on the "Show mtDNA ancestors" button, and repeat the check of descendants -- you'll find that their *mitochondria* all descend from a single female.

For a fuller discussion, see What, if anything, is a Mitochondrial Eve?.

37 posted on 02/02/2004 9:59:09 AM PST by Ichneumon
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To: cajun-jack
How does the news story conflict with Genesis?
38 posted on 02/02/2004 9:59:10 AM PST by CobaltBlue
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To: cajun-jack
guess i need to buy another tube of chapstick cause i gotta lot more butt kissin to do.

ROFL!

39 posted on 02/02/2004 9:59:44 AM PST by Ichneumon
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To: chance33_98
Note that X and Y need not be equal since recipes and hunting rituals will no doubt change and die out at different rates, so our genetic Eve did not meet our genetic Adam (and both, of course, had parents, grandparents, and other progenitors).

I guess I am chicken liver, after all.

40 posted on 02/02/2004 10:12:22 AM PST by Old Professer
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