Many thanks to Marcio and Glenn for the details of what these "first
ancestors" mean. I still would like to pursue the mtDNA and Y-Chromosome
a bit further if I might.
Please let it be clear that I am not at all looking for a Biblical
aspect of this area. I am simply interested in the evolutionary aspects.
Sticking with the Y-chromosome: I see how genes in general can swap back
and forth and how any given gene would have an ancestor back in the past
somewhere. In the Y-chromosome it is easier to think about, if for no
other reason than that it passes only from father to son and also the
time scale seems so short!.
Back some 100K years ago we have one man who has passed his
chromosome to the entire human race. I wonder about the other humans
who lived at that time. Certainly there were in the order of 100K men
who had a different Y-chromosome. What happened to them? Apparently
their descendents all died off. Would I expect that to be true? Heck no!
--- unless they were genetically inferior. It seems really weird for
that to have happened simply as a matter of course. In 100K years with
an generally expanding population, I would expect the human race to have
Y-chromosomes for many different sets of "Adams" back at that time in
the not-so-distant-past.
If you can bear with me, what is wrong with that reasoning?
Walt
===================================
Walt Hicks <wallyshoes@mindspring.com>
In any consistent theory, there must
exist true but not provable statements.
(Godel's Theorem)
You can only find the truth with logic
If you have already found the truth
without it. (G.K. Chesterton)
===================================
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