Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Study: 'Eve' Came From East Africa
Discover News ^ | 4-24-2003 | Jennifer Viegas

Posted on 04/26/2003 7:36:03 PM PDT by blam

Study: 'Eve' Came From East Africa

By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News

April 24, 2003 — "African Eve," the female ancestor of all humans, likely hailed from East Africa, according to a recent study.

If the current analysis is correct, East Africa probably served as the cradle of humanity many thousands of years ago.

Sarah Tishkoff, lead author of the paper and an assistant professor of biology at the University of Maryland, explained that the term African Eve "…refers to an ancestral mitochondrial DNA genome.

"All genomes today are descended from one person, but she lived in a larger population. By chance, her neighbor's mtDNA genomes 'died out' and never made it into the modern gene pool."

Mitochondrial DNA is inherited unchanged from the mother only, allowing researchers to trace unadulterated DNA back hundreds of thousands of years.

For the Eve study, blood samples were taken from over 1,000 ethnically and linguistically diverse populations in Tanzania. Tishkoff and her colleagues focused on the mtDNA from a subset of 500 that represented remote populations, many of which have never been studied before.

Tishkoff presents the findings on Thursday at a meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropology.

The oldest DNA lineages show the greatest diversity. When the Tanzanian test subset was compared with existing genetic data, Tanzania and other East African countries, such as Kenya and Ethiopia, displayed the most diversity, and are therefore likely the oldest mtDNA in Africa.

While Tishkoff and her team were unable to narrow Eve's origins down to a single population, possible candidates include the Burunge and Iraqw, who probably migrated from Ethiopia to Tanzania within the last 5,000 years; the Maasai and Datog, who are thought to have originated in southern Sudan; and two very ancient Tanzanian populations, the Sandawe and Hadza.

"The Sandawe and Hadza live about 150 km (93.21 miles) apart, but they look very different," Tishkoff told Discovery News. "The Hadza are dark skinned and the Sandawe are light skinned, for instance. They both practice hunting and gathering and are thought to be descendants of very ancestral populations from that region."

The two populations speak using a click language. A South African group, the !Kung san, also speak with a click language and previously were thought to be one of Africa's oldest populations.

Because genetic studies reveal the !Kung san and Sandawe share a common ancestor from 37,000 years ago, Tishkoff and her team now believe the !Kung san may have originated in East Africa and later migrated southward.

Alison Brooks, professor of anthropology at George Washington University, thinks the East Africa Eve theory is "definitely a possibility."

Brooks found some of the earliest evidence for modern human behavior — finely crafted barbed bones that were used for fishing — in Eastern Zaire. She told Discovery News that long-distance trade networks, microlithic technology (small, interlocking tools), and the presence of an animal- and plant-rich environment all suggest East Africa was the origination point for modern human development.

Brooks said, "From Ethiopia into Tanzania and Zambia, we see evidence for a large human population that was culturally complex very early on, even by the Middle Stone Age (200,000-30,000 years ago)."


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: africa; east; eve; godsgravesglyphs; study
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-51 next last
To: Bernard Marx
I think Australia is the least likely place, based entirely on the distinct development of the fossil record and wildlife which inhabit that continent. It appears to me that man was a relatively late arrival. But I certainly am no expert in such matters.

Your other suggestions for the origin are definitely in the running, IMO.

21 posted on 04/26/2003 8:14:28 PM PDT by Dog Gone
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Bernard Marx
(This article is somewhat dated. Mungo Man has been re-dated to 47,000yo)

Ancient Aussie

11:43 09 January 01

A man who died about 60,000 years ago in Australia could force a rethink of our theory of human origins.

Researchers in Australia have accomplished the extremely difficult feat of extracting DNA from his skeleton and were astonished to find the sequence is unique, matching nothing seen before.

The DNA is the oldest ever recovered from human remains. It shows that while the man is completely anatomically modern, he came from a genetic lineage that is now extinct. This finding challenges the prevailing theory that all modern humans are descended from a group of people who migrated from Africa around 100,000 years ago.

"It's remarkable - totally unpredicted," says anthropologist Alan Mann of the University of Pennsylvania.

Alan Thorne of the Australian National University in Canberra, who led the new research, says: "A simplistic 'Out Of Africa' model is no longer tenable."

But not all experts agree. "The genetic evidence is equivocal," says Colin Groves, of the ANU. "The African origin model stands or falls by the fossil evidence. In my opinion, it stands."

The new research contradicts a recent study of mitochondrial DNA, which supported the Out of Africa theory (New Scientist online, 6 December 2000).

Family trees

The remains of Mungo Man were found on the shores of Lake Mungo in south-eastern Australia in 1974.

In 1995, a team led by Thorne began an attempt to extract genetic material from the remains. Gregory Adcock and his colleagues at CSIRO Plant Industry managed to replicate and sequence a single gene from Mungo Man's mitochondria. The small genome of these cell powerhouses is passed down the female line.

Simon Easteal, an evolutionary geneticist at ANU, then set about analysing the sequence and comparing it with sequences of the same gene from nine other early Australians - ranging in age from 8,000 to 15,000 years - as well as 3,453 contemporary people from around the world, chimpanzees, bonobos and two European Neanderthals.

According to Easteal's evolutionary tree, the line that led to the most recent common ancestor of contemporary people, includes the ancient Australians but excludes Mungo Man.

"We can say with a high degree of confidence that modern people arrived in Australia before the new lineage [of the most recent common ancestor] arrived," Easteal says.

22 posted on 04/26/2003 8:15:00 PM PDT by blam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: ThreePuttinDude
"Are these the pictures?? "

Those aren't the ones I was thinking about.

23 posted on 04/26/2003 8:16:01 PM PDT by blam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: ALS
Even the Bible sets out the story of a common ancestor. If you choose to continue giggling, it's fine with me. But don't pretend you know what you're laughing at.
24 posted on 04/26/2003 8:19:28 PM PDT by Dog Gone
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Dog Gone
Don't pretend you understood me if you plan on assigning such interpertations of my laugh.
25 posted on 04/26/2003 8:23:06 PM PDT by ALS
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: blam
"African Eve," the female ancestor of all humans, likely hailed from East Africa, according to a recent study.

Again?
LOL

26 posted on 04/26/2003 8:23:38 PM PDT by Publius6961 (Californians are as dumm as a sack of rocks)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: blam
Very interesting. This seems to support the family "bush" theory rather than the family "tree" of humans. In the bush theory, there were many lines of pre-homo sapiens that didn't survive and became extinct while one survived through it all. Maybe Mungo Man and those line him were one of the off shoots that didn't make it.
27 posted on 04/26/2003 8:25:24 PM PDT by DaGman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: blam
There is a liberal-left professor in the State University here that actually made the following argument against reparations (paraphrasing):

"Forget reparations. All life originated in Africa. The US patent office allows the patenting of life. Blacks should patent themselves and collect royalties on every birth in the world."

I am absolutely sure he was not making a joke.
28 posted on 04/26/2003 9:02:25 PM PDT by jim_trent
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DaGman
"Very interesting. This seems to support the family "bush" theory rather than the family "tree" of humans. In the bush theory, there were many lines of pre-homo sapiens that didn't survive and became extinct while one survived through it all. Maybe Mungo Man and those line him were one of the off shoots that didn't make it."

OR! As I believe, modern humans could have developed numerous times/places from a common source. This could account for the three distinct races of today. Imagine three (maybe more) isolated groups of modern humans (related by a common ancestor) and over the milliniums there was continuous, slow but continuous interchange of genes. That's called the 'multi-regional' theory.

29 posted on 04/26/2003 9:04:18 PM PDT by blam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

...Eve Arden?
30 posted on 04/26/2003 9:08:41 PM PDT by Consort
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: ThreePuttinDude
This can't be right. All the pictures I've ever seen of Adam and Eve, they're white.
31 posted on 04/26/2003 9:09:31 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: blam
Please read The Fallacy of Racism
32 posted on 04/26/2003 9:15:21 PM PDT by LiteKeeper
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: Verginius Rufus
Wow... were they digital pictures, or old-fashioned, tin-types?
33 posted on 04/26/2003 9:15:42 PM PDT by Pan_Yans Wife (Lurking since 2000.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: LiteKeeper
"Please read The Fallacy of Racism"

Nothing racist going on here.

34 posted on 04/26/2003 9:20:31 PM PDT by blam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

Comment #35 Removed by Moderator

To: Dog Gone
I think Australia is the least likely place, based entirely on the distinct development of the fossil record and wildlife which inhabit that continent. It appears to me that man was a relatively late arrival.

There's a clear record of at least 50,000-60,000 years of continuous human habitation in Australia, and recent discoveries (as yet relatively unexamined) tend to push that frontier back much further than that. This is a continent that's almost untouched archaeologically and paleontologically. I'm not pre-judging, just wondering.

36 posted on 04/26/2003 9:38:23 PM PDT by Bernard Marx
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: blam; Dog Gone
I replied to Dog Gone before I read your response, but Mungo Man is who I had in mind.

I've always had an open mind in regard to an African genesis but have also found it almost cloyingly "handy" in terms of current political correctness/propaganda. We've had many exchanges about academic mind-sets and it seems to me this is another "Clovis Barrier." What does it hurt to examine the evidence?

I knew Louis Leakey and I've always felt he did irreparable damage to paleontology with his fund-seeking popularization of the Olduvai Gorge paradigm. That "research" was funded by National Geographic which even at that time (around 1963 or so) had global "Green," socialist and "multicultural" politics in mind. I think Louis was a decent man who was seduced by money and celebrity. National Geographic is despicable.
37 posted on 04/26/2003 9:58:18 PM PDT by Bernard Marx
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: blam
"OR! As I believe, modern humans could have developed numerous times/places from a common source."

But would that explain how Mungo Man has mtDNA that matches no one else? Could it be these "species" developed independently without that common ancestor? Could it also be that there was parallel development in other parts of the world, albeit independent development?

38 posted on 04/26/2003 11:06:41 PM PDT by DaGman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: DaGman
"Could it also be that there was parallel development in other parts of the world, albeit independent development?"

Yes, that too absent any cross pollination.

39 posted on 04/27/2003 6:53:16 AM PDT by blam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: Bernard Marx
I knew Louis Leakey

I'm jealous. But I'm in total agreement with you regarding preconceived notions and political correctness. We have made fascinating discoveries over the past few decades and undoubtedly we will make more.

Viewing them objectively is essential.

40 posted on 04/27/2003 6:59:36 AM PDT by Dog Gone
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-51 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson