I don’t want to steer this thread away from the original topic, but your comment is intriguing, PJ! :)
SunkenCiv & Blam, I’m pinging you two because I know through the GGG list and such that you two know a LOT about this topic - so if you can shed light like a link or something on this point I would be much appreciative!
(BTW: Apologies in advance for any mistakes in relating any of the following concepts - I’m not well-educated in the area of genetics really at all, and it gets confusing for me...)
Philo-Junius mentioned that there was a time within human history that Scientists have discovered our population dwindled to a handful of females and one male (around the last Toba Supervolcano eruption). Anyway, while I am aware that they have figured out how through the Human Genome Project to trace the Mother’s Mitochondrial DNA and have at least identified a relatively small group of women as humanity’s “mothers”, I was unaware they were able to do this with any success when it came to the father’s DNA in order to isolate a specific donor (as in the one man who presumably would have mated with this handful of women to keep things going at that point).
Again, any further information on this (or even a study name so I can google more info.) would be much appreciated. This stuff I find incredibly fascinating — especially any time religion, science, and other fields of study come together and can support each other! ;-) LOL
One part you posted, LibertyRocks, caught my attention —
[ ... ] Anyway, while I am aware that they have figured out how through the Human Genome Project to trace the Mother’s Mitochondrial DNA and have at least identified a relatively small group of women as humanity’s “mothers” [ ... ]
—
Well, the only time in human history when that happened was on Noah’s Ark. If you don’t count Noah and his wife (I don’t think they had any more kids), then you’ve got humanity squeezed down to three women. It was through the three wives of the three sons of Noah that all humanity came to be, to the present time.