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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: 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: 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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