Largest Human Family Tree

[circumspice]

A thought provoking & controversial article about using both ancient & modern human DNA to trace the origins & migrations of humanity. Be sure to watch the very brief video in the article. It shows modern human lineages on a world map, regressing back through time to a single point of origin in what is now Sudan.

Some highlights:

“The very earliest ancestors we identify trace back in time to a geographic location that is in modern Sudan,” Wohn tells Reuters. “These ancestors lived up to and over 1 million years ago—which is much older than current estimates for the age of Homo sapiens—250,000 to 300,000 years ago. So bits of our genome have been inherited from individuals who we wouldn’t recognize as modern humans.”


While more research is needed to understand the full results of the study, scientists are already finding interesting—if not controversial—clues in the family tree. Evidence suggests that humans may have populated the Americas much earlier than originally suspected. According to archaeologists, humans first arrived in North America about 20,000 years ago.

“Our method estimated that there were ancestors in the Americas by 56,000 years ago,” Wohn tells Times Live.

“We also estimated significant numbers of human ancestors in Oceania—specifically Papua New Guinea—by 140,000 years ago. But this is not firm evidence like a radiocarbon-dated tool or fossil.”



https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-ne ... 180979657/


These are exciting times we live in... I wonder if it's more akin to the old Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times."

[deniolps]

That is really interesting! A fascinating finding is the link between the Miyaki events and the Younger Dryas theory. Fusa Miyaki's oxygen-14 data from trees that have already turned into fossils adds a new and interesting layer to our knowledge of these events. You did a great thing by giving this information to scientists.