Y-chromosomal Adam

Assessment | Biopsychology | Comparative | Cognitive | Developmental | Language | Individual differences | Personality | Philosophy | Social |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |

Biological: Behavioural genetics · Evolutionary psychology · Neuroanatomy · Neurochemistry · Neuroendocrinology · Neuroscience · Psychoneuroimmunology · Physiological Psychology · Psychopharmacology (Index, Outline)

---

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.

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.

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.

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

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

External links

• Documentary Redraws Humans' Family Tree (from National Geographic)
• Mitochondrial Eve and Y-chromosomal Adam Diagrams
• Y-Chromosome Biallelic Haplogroups

Human Y-chromosome DNA (Y-DNA) haplogroups

Y-most recent common ancestor

|

A

|

B

|

C

|

F

D

E

G

H

|

K

I

J

L

M

NO

P

N

O

Q

R

de:Adam des Y-Chromosoms es:Y-cromosoma Adan nl:Y-chromosomale Adam