Now, a new paper published in the journal Science significantly narrows the time during which Adam could have lived – about 120,000 to 156,000 years ago – putting him in about the same time period as humankind’s most recent common female ancestor, often dubbed “Eve." The research revises previous findings that dated Adam within a much longer period. And the findings also ease recent doubts that the Y chromosome can reliably trace ancient lineage, renewing confidence that tracing and dating lineage using mutations in the Y chromosome could be critical in answering some of the vexing questions about how and where the first humans originated. “We’ve shown that we can do this kind of dating, and that the Y chromosome is a really powerful tool,” says Brenna Henn, a genetics researcher at SUNY Stony Brook. “Now that we can use the Y chromosome in this manner, we can go back and look into other big questions, like exactly where in Africa did humans originate?”
Posted on: Sun, 04 Aug 2013 13:44:08 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015