Roots Of Human Family Tree Are Shallow

ABC News ^ | 7-1-2006 | Matt Clenson

[blam]

Roots of Human Family Tree Are Shallow

Roots of the Human Family Tree Are Remarkably Shallow - All Alive Today Share 1 Common Ancestor

By MATT CRENSON AP National Writer

Jul 1, 2006 (AP)— Whoever it was probably lived a few thousand years ago, somewhere in East Asia Taiwan, Malaysia and Siberia all are likely locations. He or she did nothing more remarkable than be born, live, have children and die.

Yet this was the ancestor of every person now living on Earth the last person in history whose family tree branches out to touch all 6.5 billion people on the planet today.

That means everybody on Earth descends from somebody who was around as recently as the reign of Tutankhamen, maybe even during the Golden Age of ancient Greece. There's even a chance that our last shared ancestor lived at the time of Christ.

"It's a mathematical certainty that that person existed," said Steve Olson, whose 2002 book "Mapping Human History" traces the history of the species since its origins in Africa more than 100,000 years ago.

It is human nature to wonder about our ancestors who they were, where they lived, what they were like. People trace their genealogy, collect antiques and visit historical sites hoping to capture just a glimpse of those who came before, to locate themselves in the sweep of history and position themselves in the web of human existence.

[muawiyah]

Since Persia is simply the other end of a traditional empire that usually terminates somewhere in the Indus valley, the trade in large numbers of people has undoubtedly happened many, many times.

The original civilized people in Mesopotamia spoke Sumerian. Many linguists have concluded Sumerian is a cognate language to one of the original Dravidian languages.

It's noteworthy that a linguist at Indiana University has managed to link Sumerian to Sa'ami (Laplander languages), another ancient written language in China, and an American Indian language still spoken in California in historic times.

The transfer of people hither and yon has undoubtedly been enormous.

[zeugma]

Apparently we went from a thriving species to a small band of survivors.

Sounds like something I read in a Good Book. 

[Radix]

"That's Jared Diamond's theory too."

Obviously you realize that is where I got it from!

[blam]

"Obviously you realize that is where I got it from!"

I've read Jared's books but I'm not a big fan, he's to damn PC, etc for me. I do like his ideas about continental alignment though...I should have thought of that, lol.

[blam]

"And don't forget the Japanese monks who made it to Arizona in the 1300s (now known as the Zuni)."

I liked that book:

The Zuni Enigma

"For many years, anthropologists have understood the Zuni in the American Southwest to occupy a special place in Native American culture and ethnography. Their language, religion, and blood type are startlingly different from all other tribes. Most puzzling, the Zuni appear to have much in common with the people of Japan. "

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

...the Toba explosion killed off roughly 96% of our paleo-ancestry...

No that was JimRob and the rest of the mods. I'm not sure why he left me. Perhaps as an archeological curiousity. ;-)

[Radix]

"Well, a billion years ago - yes. All of us share the same most basic biochemistry."

You know, there is tendency among some to throw the term "billions of years ago" around like a Circus Clown might throw candle pins.

Biology, microbial and else, has not fundamentally changed in the last few billions of years.

You all ought to see yourselves, from a perspective that does not require you to be prone and facing the place commonly known as Mecca, or perhaps elsewhere! Ultimately, it is all the same thing. A rose by any other name is still a rose.

Well, call me a reactionary, and I'll call you what you truly are. Supporters of a faith with no real evidence to support it.

[Radix]

I'm learning about Diamond.

He is popular in the local universities.

The Amazon reviews were brutal (what I read) but the critics are also nutjobs. Some of them anyhow.

There are simply not enough hours in a day for me.

You do great stuff out here.

You and Sunk Civ are the light of the world, well sort of.......

I'm sure you know what I really mean.

Just thanks!

[aruanan]

Hmm.. I'm skeptical in the utmost extreme. The last common human ancestor needs to cover the Sentinelese, among other aboriginals who were isolated from the main branch of humanity well before recorded history.

With an estimate of total population between 50-200, they're more of a serving suggestion than a "people".

[blam]

"You and SunkenCiv are the light of the world, well sort of....... "

Thanks. Someboby has to do it, lol.

[aruanan]

It means when Muslims, Jews or Christians claim to be children of Abraham, they are all bound to be right.--from further in the article.

According to studies of mitochondrial drift, Jews with a Middle Eastern (as opposed to Ashkenazi) background are more closely related to certain populations in Iraq than to so-called Palestinians. Not surprising since Abraham came from Mesopotamia. The Arab Muslims are certainly not descendents of Abraham. That story was just Muhammed trying to appropriate to his own Smithoid religion some of the mojo of the most advanced religions and societies of the Arabian peninsula of his day, Judaism and Christianity.

[SunkenCiv]

Many thanks. Diamond seems to be a curmudgeon, isn't out to please anyone, although as Blam noted, a little too peecee.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1659081/posts?page=126#126

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/user-posts?id=1565

[Radix]

I really do not have the time to always look at your posted stuff.

When I do find time, I am always impressed.

Thanks, and keep up the good work!

[GSlob]

"Biology, microbial and else, has not fundamentally changed in the last few billions of years."
It did, by proceeding hierarchically in time. The number of aminoacids got fixed early. The same anticholinesteratics which work on cockroach, will work on you [as nerve gases]. Once choline/acetilcholine nerve transmission appeared [in multicellular organisms with nervous systems], it persisted ever since throughout. Once the basic land animal body plan with four limbs and one head appeared - ditto.

[GSlob]

Shame on me as a professional chemist - acetylcholine.

[muawiyah]

BTW, there were several different large Jewish populations in the Middle Ages. One was in Spain. Another was in Egypt. Yet another was in Baghdad (and earlier in Babylon).

[Radix]

"The number of aminoacids got fixed early."

Early and forever it seems from here.

Do you know why it is easier to treat Prokaryotic invasions than it is the to treat Eukaryotic invasions?

[SunkenCiv]

I wholeheartedly agree.

[balch3]

sounds like a vindication of Young Earth Creation to me.

[GSlob]

I'm a chemist working in gene therapy, not much of a biochemist and most certainly not a MD. Your question falls outside of my area of expertise, but I know people whom to ask.