Source: Huffington Post

Now this story will blow your mind. According to research almost every man alive can trace his origin to one man who lived over 135,000 years ago. It is likely that the man lived at the same time with the mother of all women. However, there is a twist, it is likely that the man and woman didnt even know each other, let alone mate.

It follows the Y chromosome is passed down identically from father to son, so mutations, in the male sexchromosome can trace the male line back to the father of all humans. However, DNA from the mitochondria, is carried inside the egg, so only women pass it on to their children. The DNA hidden inside mitochondria, therefore, can reveal the maternal lineage to an ancient.

Hence, the two people do not in anyway resemble the Adam and Eve story in the bible. It is stated that they were not the first humans on the planet, but just two out of thousands of people alive at the time with an unbroken male chromosome and mitochondria that continue on today.

The rest of the human genome contains tiny snippets of DNA from many other ancestors — they just don’t show up in mitochondrial or Y-chromosome DNA, according to the researchers (For instance, if an ancient woman had only sons, then her mitochondrial DNA would disappear, even though the son would pass on a quarter of her DNA via the rest of his genome.)

The findings of the research which were published on the 1 August, in the Journal science, is arguably a complete analysis of the male sex chromosome to date. The results dispute an earlier research which suggested that men’s most recent common ancestor lived just 50,000 to 60,000 years ago.

Researchers believe that modern humans left Africa between 60,000 and 200,000 years ago, and the mother of all women likely emerged from East Africa. However, beyond that, no one can state for a fact what happened.

In this research the scientists assembled and sequenced an entire genome of the Y chromosome for 69 men from seven global populations, from African Dan Bushmen to the Yakut of Siberia.

By assuming a mutation rate attached to archaeological events (such as the migration of people across the Bering Strait), the team concluded that all males in their global sample shared a single male ancestor in Africa roughly 125,000 to 156,000 years ago.

Similarly, mitochondrial DNA from the men, as well as similar samples from 24 women, revealed that all women on the planet trace back to a mitochondrial Eve, who lived in Africa between 99,000 and 148,000 years ago — almost the same time period during which the Y-chromosome Adam lived.

The same researchers are now sequencing Y chromosomes, from nearly 2,000 other men. The results could pinpoint precisely where in Africa the humans lived.

Reference and to watch a short video clip

Additional reading

The Science-Religion Crisis at Christian Colleges

Charles Darwin: An Epiphany for the Muslims, A Catastrophe for the Christians

Clone a Neanderthal baby for the Sake of Science and Religion

Exposing Creationism of Zakir Naik, Tahir ul Qadari, Yusuf Estes and Harun Yahya

Scientific American ignoring the Elephant in the Room: Darwinian Evolution: Islam or Christianity?