'Mitochondrial Eve': Mother of All Humans Lived 200,000 Years Ago

ScienceDaily staff ^ | August 17, 2010 | materials provided by Rice U

[SunkenCiv]

The most robust statistical examination to date of our species' genetic links to "mitochondrial Eve" -- the maternal ancestor of all living humans -- confirms that she lived about 200,000 years ago. The Rice University study was based on a side-by-side comparison of 10 human genetic models that each aim to determine when Eve lived using a very different set of assumptions about the way humans migrated, expanded and spread across Earth... "Our findings underscore the importance of taking into account the random nature of population processes like growth and extinction," said study co-author Marek Kimmel, professor of statistics at Rice. "Classical, deterministic models, including several that have previously been applied to the dating of mitochondrial Eve, do not fully account for these random processes." The quest to date mitochondrial Eve (mtEve) is an example of the way scientists probe the genetic past to learn more about mutation, selection and other genetic processes that play key roles in disease... For example, the way scientists attempt to date mtEve relies on modern genetic techniques. Genetic profiles of random blood donors are compared, and based upon the likenesses and differences between particular genes, scientists can assign a number that describes the degree to which any two donors are related to one another.

[pabianice]

http://home.tiac.net/~cri_a/piltdown/piltdown.html

[James C. Bennett]

About incest - sort of, but I’m not sure about the blue eyes thing - it’s a geographically common trait that occurs within a wide gamut of races (Europe, Middle East, India, etc.)

[antiRepublicrat]

[muawiyah]

Not "died out" ~ rather the mtDNA sequence didn't get passed along. Eventually all the mtDNA sequences but one disappear since they are inherited only from the mother.

Shows the power of mathematics.

Still, all of this mtDNA analysis is under the cloud of discoveries that every now and then some mtDNA from the father gets in there and does stuff!

The Sa'ami ancestry of the Iroquois, Cherokee, Ojibway/Chippewa, Berbers, Fulbe, Yakuts/Sakha and the Sa'ami was demonstrated with such a mtDNA sequence referred to by some as "the X factor". This sequence is dated back about 9,000 years ~ at the end of the Younger Dryas. Not all Sa'ami have this sequence ~ there are others.

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

Given that we are all cousins to a certain extent and have common ancestors if you go back far enough then yes, we are all products of ‘incest’ depending on how you define the term. To be honest though, once you get to second or third cousin and beyond, calling these kinds of sexual relations ‘incest’ is stretching the term a bit...

[Vaduz]

You wouldn’t be a lawyer would you?.

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

Nope, considered becoming one, but I decided the pay wasn’t for me, so I decided to work in an assistant at a coin shop and just do the lawyer stuff in my spare time as a hobby instead...

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks redhead. The author has a really bad combover.

[Doulos1]

Unverifiable, non-scientific, estimations, and ramblings.
Anything but the Bible, Alex, for $200.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks, it’s my pleasure. :’)

[SunkenCiv]

:’) She’s a real nowhere girl though. :’)

[SunkenCiv]

I wonder, wonder, who, I wonder who, who wrote the book of mtdna... ;’)

[SunkenCiv]

I doubt it. They used the fragmentary DNA info from a Neandertal as a “reference” for their approach to “calculating” the rate of change, meaning this “study” is bogged down in exactly the same way as previous “studies”.

[SunkenCiv]

This purports to show the last common female ancestor, at best.

[SunkenCiv]

That’s 200-fold. Name one study that says that.

[SunkenCiv]

Seems reasonable.

[Vaduz]

Good thinking on your part good luck.

[redhead]

The book traces mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome histories, to find the original donors in our past. It is a very good book, with a lot of interesting ideas. I’ve enjoyed reading it. Not quite finished, but it’s worth a look.

[redhead]

"The author has a really bad combover."

Hang on, while I go look...

YIKES!! that looks worse than Bill O'Reilly or The Donald.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks! Oldie related topic:

The Human Family Tree: 10 Adams and 18 Eves
NY Times | May 2, 2000 | Nicholas Wade
Posted on 10/10/2004 8:21:08 PM PDT by neverdem
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1241240/posts