Y-chromosomal Adam
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In human genetics, Y-chromosomal Adam (Y-mrca) is the patrilineal human most recent common ancestor (mrca) from whom all Y chromosomes in living men are descended. Y-chromosomal Adam is thus the male counterpart of Mitochondrial Eve (the mt-mrca), the matrilinear human most recent common ancestor, from whom all mitochondrial DNA in living humans is descended.
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[edit] Time frame
Y-chromosomal Adam probably lived between 60,000 and 90,000 years ago, judging from molecular clock and genetic marker studies. While their descendants certainly became close intimates, Y-chromosomal Adam and mitochondrial Eve are separated by at least 30,000 years, or many hundred generations.
The more recent age of the Y-mrca compared to the mt-mrca corresponds to a larger statistical dispersion of the probability distribution for a Paleolithic man to have living descendants compared to that of a Paleolithic woman. While fertile women had more or less equally distributed chances of giving birth to a certain number of fertile descendants, chances for fertile men varied more widely, with some fathering no children and others fathering many, with multiple women.
Y-chromosomal Adam is not the same individual at all points in human history; the Y-mrca of all humans alive today is different from the one for humans alive at some point in the remote past or future: as male lines die out, a more recent individual becomes the new Y-mrca. In times of rapid population growth, patrilinear lines are less likely to die out than during a population bottleneck.
[edit] Naming
Y-chromosomal Adam is named after the "Adam" of the Genesis creation story as a metaphor only, and is not considered to be the first human.
The name incorrectly implies that Y-chromosomal Adam was the only living male of his time; he was not. Many men alive at the same time as Y-chromosomal Adam have descendants alive today. However, only Y-chromosomal Adam produced an unbroken line of male descendants carrying his Y chromosome (Y-DNA) that persists today.
[edit] References
- "Modern Men Trace Ancestry to African Migrants", A Gibbons, Volume 292, Number 5519, Issue of 11 May 2001, pp. 1051-1052.
- "African Origin of Modern Humans in East Asia: A Tale of 12,000 Y Chromosomes", Yuehai Ke et al, Science 2001 292: 1151-1153
- Fazale Rana and Ross, Hugh, Who Was Adam: A Creation Model Approach to the Origin of Man, 2005, ISBN 1-57683-577-4
[edit] See also
- Y chromosome
- Human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups
- Single-origin hypothesis
- Adam's Curse (book by Bryan Sykes)
- Genetic genealogy
- Mitochondrial Eve
- Most recent common ancestor
- Y-chromosomal Aaron
- San people
- Genealogical DNA test
[edit] External links
- Documentary Redraws Humans' Family Tree (from National Geographic)
- Mitochondrial Eve and Y-chromosomal Adam Diagrams
- Y-Chromosome Biallelic Haplogroups
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es:Y-cromosoma Adan nl:Y-chromosomale Adam
| This page uses content from the English-language version of Wikipedia. The original article was at Y-chromosomal Adam. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Psychology Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |
