Where Are You From?
06/06/12 13:03 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Submitted by S. Pelech - Kinexus on Wed, 06/06/2012 - 16:15.
While there are 7 billion people on the planet with ancestral roots that run deep in time, ultimately these roots all trace back to the same tree trunk. Gene sequencing studies of both the mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosomes of women and men, respectively, from diverse origins have long revealed that all humans today can trace their ancestry to a small family of Homo sapiens about 200,000 years ago that lived in Africa. Recently, we also learned that caucasians and orientals, but not africans, also share around 5% of their DNA with Neanderthals. While very human-like creatures such as Homo erectus (the ax maker) existed nearly 2 million years, it would appear that Homo sapiens were on the verge of extinction back around 200,000 years ago. Imagine how if that small family had not managed to survive in the face of adversity at that time how different the planet Earth would be today.
Link to the original blog post
While there are 7 billion people on the planet with ancestral roots that run deep in time, ultimately these roots all trace back to the same tree trunk. Gene sequencing studies of both the mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosomes of women and men, respectively, from diverse origins have long revealed that all humans today can trace their ancestry to a small family of Homo sapiens about 200,000 years ago that lived in Africa. Recently, we also learned that caucasians and orientals, but not africans, also share around 5% of their DNA with Neanderthals. While very human-like creatures such as Homo erectus (the ax maker) existed nearly 2 million years, it would appear that Homo sapiens were on the verge of extinction back around 200,000 years ago. Imagine how if that small family had not managed to survive in the face of adversity at that time how different the planet Earth would be today.
Link to the original blog post