Descendant Of Stone Age Skeleton Found (Cheddar Man - 9,000 Years Old)

Trussel.com/Japan Times ^ | 3-9-1997

[El Gato]

since mitochondrial DNA comes from the mother only,

Or maybe not. Note that at least the second article excerpted in post 33 post dates this article. Wonder if the analysis has been redone in the light of the more recent information?

[CrazyIvan]

Who knows? A Gouda man is hard to find.

[blam]

"Agriculture only started about 8,000 years ago as well, probably in Mesopotamia, modern day Iraq."

Farming Origins Gain 10,000 Years

"Humans made their first tentative steps towards farming 23,000 years ago, much earlier than previously thought. Stone Age people in Israel collected the seeds of wild grasses some 10,000 years earlier than previously recognised, experts say."

[beaver fever]

How many people do you think are going to get that ancient Pink Floyd reference?

[Tom D.]

I am a little puzzled why a lot more folks in town were not kin to this guy. Each of us has 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great grandparents, etc. If you go back 34 generations 640 years if you assume 20 years = 1 generation) we have more ancestors in that generation (roughly 8.6 billion) than there are people in the world today and considerably more than there were the. Now I know that there is considerable overlap, but even allowing for that, if you go back 10,000 years, it would seem likely that there a lot of folks walking around today who would be common descendants from this 10,000 year old woman.

I guess that I may be missing something, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out what it is.

[Strategerist]

How many people do you think are going to get that ancient Pink Floyd reference?

I was betting nobody; guess I was wrong :-)

[beaver fever]

OK here's another obcure Pink Foyd reference for you.

Cheddar Man died a violent death.

What was his name?

Eugene.

[blam]

"I guess that I may be missing something, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out what it is."

The whole case was just a matter of luck. A Documentary maker was in town making a documentary about Cheddar Man and at someone's suggestion he decided to fund a DNA test of some of the locals. Turns out, Targetts school students volunteered to be tested. I thought there were more than 20 in the test but this article says only 20.

[ccmay]

The genetic material showed without doubt that Targett is a direct descendant through his mother's line of the skeleton known as Cheddar Man

Not exactly. Cheddar Man could be an ancestor of Mr. Targett-- in fact, given the exponential arithmetic of genealogy, Cheddar Man is almost certainly his ancestor by many thousands of lines of descent. However, this particular finding does NOT prove direct descent.

What this proves is that Mr. Targett and Cheddar Man had a relative in their maternal lines in common. Males and females alike receive their mitochondrial DNA (mDNA) from their mothers. Cheddar Man had a sister or female cousin, perhaps a very remote cousin, on his mother's side. She had the same mDNA as he did, since they had a common female ancestor, and passed it down through many generations of daughters to Mr. Targett's mother and thence to him.

If Mr. Targett has issue, the child will get its mDNA from Mr. Targett's wife. The only hope for continuation of Cheddar Man's mDNA is via a female cousin on Mr. Targett's mother's side.

-ccm

[Dustbunny]

Read this article before, shame he is the end of the line. An only child that has no offspring.

[Dustbunny]

Maybe few came forward to be tested.

[blam]

"Read this article before, shame he is the end of the line. An only child that has no offspring."

I don't think it's the end of the line. Wouldn't 50% of Mr Targett's relatives be from the Cheddar Man line?

[Dustbunny]

yep

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

I tend to doubt this. Hard to make the claim that he is the end of the line if you only sampled 20 people. If he did reproduce there are probably tens of thousands of British who carry his genes.

[woofie]

I recieved the following from Buffalo Head in a private email(this shows great courage):

Re: Descendant Of Stone Age Skeleton Found (Cheddar Man - 9,000 Years Old) From Buffalo Head | 12/30/2005 10:31:28 PM PST read

How do you think that your inane post furthered the purpose of Free Republic? Adolescent attempts at humor belong were adolescents hang out. This forum is for adults and mature children. Please post again after you mature to adult level.

Anyone else hear from such a wondeful freeper?Happy New Year to all

[Nasty McPhilthy]

Yep.

[woofie]

Well they say depression is a major problem at this time of year ...but I dont want to poast anything other than an inane comment...

[Nasty McPhilthy]

I guess we've been labeled as "Yuk Yuk".

http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/warriorshtm/yukyuk.htm

[woofie]

mmmmm..... yuk

[Nasty McPhilthy]

Buffalo Head aka Ennui.

http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/warriorshtm/ennui.htm