Everyone,

I read this article in the online edition of the Telegraph last night, and I'm still just as blown away by this information as I was before. I debated with myself about which board to post it on, and finally decided to post it here because of the irony of it, even though this board doesn't get much traffic.

It turns out that we humans aren't all that "diverse" after all! I also belong to the big genealogy site, geni.com. The slogan for that site is "We're all related." And we really are! Literally. We are all related. It's difficult wrapping your mind around it, but there it is. We have no choice but to accept it.

--Linda

African tribe populated rest of the world

The entire human race outside Africa owes its existence to the survival of a single tribe of around 200 people who crossed the Red Sea 70,000 years ago, scientists have discovered.

By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent
Last Updated: 9:10AM BST 09 May 2009

Research by geneticists and archaeologists has allowed them to trace the origins of modern homo sapiens back to a single group of people who managed to cross from the Horn of Africa and into Arabia. From there they went on to colonise the rest of the world.

It is thought that changes in the climate between 90,000 and 70,000 years ago caused sea levels to drop dramatically and allowed the crossing of the Red Sea to take place.

The findings are to be revealed in a new BBC Two documentary series, The Incredible Human Journey, that traces the prehistoric origins of the human species.

It is thought that by 150,000 years ago these early modern humans had managed to spread to other parts of Africa and fossilised remains have been found on the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.

The earliest homo sapien remains found outside of Africa were discovered in Israel and are thought to be around 100,000 years old. They are remains of a group that left Africa through what is now the Sahara desert during a brief period when the climate grew wetter, turning the desert green with vegetation. This excursion, however, failed and the population died out when the climate started to dry out again.

While there are 14 ancestral populations in Africa itself, just one seems to have survived outside of the continent.

The latest genetic research has shown that it was not until around 70,000 years ago that humans were able to take advantage of falling sea levels to cross into Arabia at the mouth of the Red Sea, which is now known as the Gate of Grief.

At the time the 18 mile gap between the continents would have dropped to just 8 miles. It is not clear how they might have made such a journey but once a cross, the humans were able to spread along the Arabian coast where fresh water springs helped support them.

It has long been assumed that humans success in spreading around the world was due to their adaptability and hunting skills. The latest research, however, suggests that the very early human pioneers who ventured out of Africa owe far more of their success to luck and favourable changes in climate change than had previously been realised.

Dr Stephen Oppenheimer, a geneticist at the school of anthropology at Oxford University who has also led research on the genetic origins of humans outside Africa, said: "What you can see from the DNA of all non Africans is that they all belong to one tiny African branch that came across the Red Sea."

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Source

Scientists reveal face of the first European

A forensic reconstruction from a jawbone and incomplete skull. It isn't possible to determine the sex, but he/she looks very African. And what is REALLY ironic is that there's a strong resemblance to Barack Obama!

--Linda

Dear Linda -

Holy Bananas ! Ya'll mean I am slightly ( black ) darker than I thought I was ? Being from the mountains is the south of the good old US of A, I cannot believe that nor will my Blue Ridge buddies.
( I kinda figured that is what happened - sometime ago . . . )

I thought the only question was whether it was a single migration, a few, or maybe several. A connection to climate change makes sense though, sense if climate had allowed such things all along, there would probably have been several migrations.

I've read that our species had a genetic bottleneck (i.e., population crash) a hundred and something thousand years ago; I think that was talking about the entire species though (including all the tribes in Africa), so that would have been something within Africa.

Henry

quote:

Originally posted by William:
Dear Linda -

Holy Bananas ! Ya'll mean I am slightly ( black ) darker than I thought I was ? Being from the mountains is the south of the good old US of A, I cannot believe that nor will my Blue Ridge buddies.
( I kinda figured that is what happened - sometime ago . . . )

William,

Right! The theory of the African origin of all three races of modern humans has been around for several years now. I believe it was Oppenheimer (quoted in the article) who first proposed it. What is new is the fact that DNA analysis of people on every continent confirms Oppenheimer's hypothesis.

There has been a good deal of resistance to this theory in certain quarters for the very reason you suggest. It seems there are a few good ol' boys who get their panties in a twist when they consider that they might be descended from uh...well...you know...

I don't care about that stuff myself. I'm tremendously excited about this news and want to tell everyone I know, including a certain good ol' boy of my acquaintance. I may also post it on the News BB just to give the righties kinniption fits, and also to make sure everyone sees it.

What is really creepy about all this is considering that every other species of hominid, including other strains of homo sapiens has become EXTINCT except for this one. And in most cases, their extinction appears to have been due to catastrophic climate change.

Definitely food for thought...

--Linda

     An easily read National Geographic article supports the view that modern humans originated in Africa, basing that conclusion on physical measurements and DNA analysis of a lot of skulls.
     I have heard it theorized that Whites lost their skin pigmentation by natural selection: Fair skins synthesize vitamin D more efficiently than dark ones in the weak European sunlight. (I am not sure facts support the theory. I'll look for supporting evidence and tell you what I find.)
     Yes, I found an article about sunlight, skin and vitamin D
Seán

Of course, there's also the fact that our closest relatives outside our species are also native to Africa. That pretty strongly suggests the idea by itself.

Henry

Henry,
     I was thinking of the chimpanzees when I expressed my reservations: Their skins are light in color. We may be making a false assumption about the pigmentation of the first human emigrants from Africa; perhaps they lacked pigmentation from the beginning?
     We know strong solar radiation on unpigmented skin causes low fertility because folates are destroyed. If human skin was fair to start with, darker skin in sunny Africa would have had a reproductive advantage and hence would have been naturally selected. The selection would have become operative at the time when we moved from the shaded forest to the open plains.
Seán

They do? I hadn't noticed, but that probably has something to do with all that hair.

Henry

I'm a little surprised that there is much discussion about this here. I thought the "out of Africa" theory had been pretty much accepted in the scientific community for decades. Ever since Dr Leaky's findings.

John T,
     The Leakeys were the first to excavate hominid bones in Kenya. They did not suggest that modern men, throughout the world, all came from one small group of emigrants from Africa.
     Evidence of that comes primarily from modern DNA research which is still in progress.
Seán

Sir Sean -

I have a huge problem with this system. It keeps asking me for E-Mail and Password which I alway give it to THEM ! But ALWAYS they keep telling me I do not have a proper password. I do not capitalize any letters in that password. But too often they will not let me on ! Usually even when I capitalize the P. Now when I finally tried again and once again with it being capitalized, they let me on I do not care one way or the other but I'd finally like to get it all working. Perhaps you can help me ?

A Thousand thanks,

W H D

quote:

...It keeps asking me for E-Mail and Password...

William,
Next time it asks, notice that there is a little box to check that tells it to remember your e-mail and password. Check the box and it will remember you for a little while. About once a month I get rejected until I make the entries and check that box again. Please let me know if this fix works or not.
Seán

Sir Sean -

Thank you. I have one black box at the bottom. A couple of tiny ones at the top. I must see !

William,
At the very top of the Bulletin Board, on the right, it says Login. Click that and you will see:
___________________________________
Email _______________

Password ____________

» Lost Password?

[] Remember Me for Aantares
____________________________________

Click the box where it says "Remember Me for Aantares.
Seán

Sean Sir -

Thank you as all is well now. However, I must say my son Bill did it the whatever. I am too - too unable to do all most everything. Other people are nice.

William,
I am glad to see you back. Don't let Bill go too far away because you will probably be disconnected again. This month it has happened to me twice already.
Seán

Sir Sean,

Yep, I do need my son, Bill. This, the 3 Ts and reading are all I have for my mind to be engaged in. Though for this Father's Day passed, 3 of my children are sending me down to Florida for 3 to 4 days visiting my Number Two daughter's place right near the Atlantic a bit south of Jacksonville. No stairs for me. And with me - door to door - at all times will be my oldest grand daughter and her husband. ( My life ain't all bad ! )

quote:

African tribe populated rest of the world

So for the census... I put African American?

Ictalurus,
     The New census rules allow American Indian or Alaska Native; Asian; Black or African American; Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander; and White.
     There appears to be no penalty for wrong choices, so you can select whichever one your heart desires. I think I'll be a Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander because I'd like to try surfboarding.
Seán

How did the phrase "African American" get invented, anyhow? It sounds like it's calling the person a hybrid of two continents.

Henry,
     The Online Etymology Dictionary] says
Africa: L. Africa (terra) "African land," fem. of Africus, from Afer "an African." Originally only in ref. to the region around Tunesia, it gradually was extended to the whole continent. Derivation from Arabic afar "dust, earth" is tempting, but the early date seems to argue against it. Africanas "Africans" was in O.E. There are isolated instances of African-American from at least 1863 (Afro-American is attested from 1853), but the modern use is a re-invention first attested 1969 (in reference to the African-American Teachers Association) which became the preferred term in some circles for "U.S. black" (n. or adj.) by the late 1980s.

     I have been told the term is preferred to "Black American" because it refers to all aspects of the residual culture from Africa instead of simple pigmentation. My personal opinion is that a stigma is still attached to blackness by many people in this country and that "African-American" is primarily a circumlocution used to avoid an an "embarrassing" reference to color. The stigma seems to be fading fast away, which is fortunate because we will be very occupied with our economic problems and other things that really matter.
Seán