"Follow these lineages back far enough and you get to what scientists call the Adam and Eve of genetics. "These are individuals who really lived in the past. There was really some woman at some point in the past who was the common ancestor of all modern mitochondrial DNA and there really was one man who was the common ancestor of all Y-chromosomes," says Jobling. "They didn't necessarily live at the some time - the evidence suggests they didn't - but they were both probably within Africa."
I've read this, but I don't fully understand. Does this concept make sense to anyone else? I personally don't see how this would have worked... What about the parents of this 'Adam and Eve'? Surely they didn't just spontaniously appear?
My thought would be, is that "Eve" had a mutation that was recessive and it was passed on from generation to generation, after many generations a sizable portion of the population has the recessive mutation and they begin mating with one another, keep in mind that by this point the gene pool has diluted so there won't be inbreeding repercussions. The mutation becomes dominant and then new mutations take root eventually leading to a new species.
I think there would probably be a large number of eve's and adam's who lead to the human species.
WE, however, do meddle in the affairs of others.
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SyntaxVorlon wrote:I think there would probably be a large number of eve's and adam's who lead to the human species.
I remember reading somewhere that they traced our DNA back to one male and one female. Of course, they existed roughly 100k years apart... and I'm not sure they were humans yet.
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The concept of a "Mitochondrial Eve" has come up before (mitochondrial DNA is easier to extract than nuclear DNA because we carry many more copies of it per cell, and is almost exclusively derived from the egg cell). It's one possible explanation for the fact that almost all mitochondrial DNA is similar, and there are sequences in it that are very common.
The other explanation is that those sequences are common because they provide some reproductive advantage, and arose seperately in multiple strains of early hominid.
The article refers to a specific "adam and eve" because that's the smallest possible set you could track back to, and it's easy for people to grasp.
Y-chromosomal adam and mitochondrial eve both had many ancestors before them. These are just the latest two common ancestors of all living people. They weren't really the first people, they're just the only ones to produce offspring that actually went on to produce offspring that went on to produce offspring that went on to eventually have every living human alive. As time goes on, and more people die off, mitochondrial eve and y-chromosomal adam will change, because different populations will die out.
Zero132132 wrote:Y-chromosomal adam and mitochondrial eve both had many ancestors before them. These are just the latest two common ancestors of all living people. They weren't really the first people, they're just the only ones to produce offspring that actually went on to produce offspring that went on to produce offspring that went on to eventually have every living human alive. As time goes on, and more people die off, mitochondrial eve and y-chromosomal adam will change, because different populations will die out.
To add to this, Y-Adam and M-Eve only pass down the DNA in question down that gender line; if one of M-Eve's descendents has only boys, her mitochodrial line ends even though her genetic line doesn't.
Zero132132 wrote:Y-chromosomal adam and mitochondrial eve both had many ancestors before them. These are just the latest two common ancestors of all living people. They weren't really the first people, they're just the only ones to produce offspring that actually went on to produce offspring that went on to produce offspring that went on to eventually have every living human alive. As time goes on, and more people die off, mitochondrial eve and y-chromosomal adam will change, because different populations will die out.
Or to put it another way, everyone has a Y-chromosomal papa-wombat and a mitochondrial mama-wombat. (I know, we didn't evolve from wombats, but bear with me here.)
Of course, you know what fundies do when they get news like this...
FREDDY THE FUNDIE: "Y'SEE?!! Y'SEE, ya atheist HEATHENS!!Science prooves the Gawrden of Eden! Adam and Eve LAIVED!! PRAISE TH' LAWRD!! PRAISE TH' LAWRD AN' JEEEEEZUS!!! It's NOT TOO LATE to confess yer SINS and accept JEEEEEEEEEEEEZIS!!! inta yer LIVES!!! HALELUJAH, and SING to the love of JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE--"
*WHAM!!*
And here you thought you'd seen the last of him...
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Except that Y-chromosomal Adam and mitochondrial Eve lived thousands of years apart... that's why Freedy the Fundie can go molest himself analy with a soldering iron. Cauterize that fucker's ass hole shut.
So according to this, it is reasonable to state that the human race as it currently stands has evolved from a single pair of people - albeit ones that lived thousands of years apart?
Pezzoni wrote:So according to this, it is reasonable to state that the human race as it currently stands has evolved from a single pair of people - albeit ones that lived thousands of years apart?
No, these are just the two who have an unbroken line of descendents of their gender.
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