YESTERYEARS
Regardless of your religious beliefs or cultural/ethnic background, it is a scientific fact that ALL humans can trace their origins to ONE woman in Africa through their own genetics (mitochondria DNA). Excavated bones from around the world, relics and artifacts left by our ancestors only help to augment our understandings. This includes corroborating techniques that back one another up such as carbon-14 & potassium-40 dating, environmental and geological markers etc.
Science traces back our origins
Every cell in our body is powered by a mitochondria, the DNA present within its nucleus is only passed on from mothers to daughters. It was discovered quite a few years ago that mutations in mitochondria DNA occur on a regular basis and even more fascinating, that every human on the planet could trace their ancestry based on only six genetic mutation markers, which can then be traced back to a single genetic mutation. Large genetic mutation markers occur every 20 000 years. Although this knowledge is old hat in the scientific community, I am still surprised at how few people know this.
What the above mean in plain English is that EVERY human in the world, whether from Inuit in the North Pole or tribes in the Amazon rain forest or even the Australian aboriginals are not only all related, but all share the same ancestral mother.
Age of our species
The human species, homo sapien to be more precise, is only 120 000 years old, using mitochondria DNA techniques, we know that there have been roughly 7 000 generations of humans. This might sound like a long time but it is insignificant compared to our 14 billion years old universe. We are dealing with enormous time scales, considering humans rarely reached 100 years old before the advent of modern medical intervention.
Around the world in 120 thousand years
We evolved from a distant species about 120 thousand years ago on the plains of Africa and unable to move north due to the Sahara Desert, which was much dryer and larger back then, we simply stayed put, for 40 thousand years. It is estimated we grew to no more then 10 thousand in total world population, living a hunter/gatherer lifestyle. This was during the middle of an Ice Age, the oceans where up to 150ft lower and the world map looked generally similar to what you see now.
About 80 thousand years ago, the Ice sheets that covered most of the northern continents retreated and humans began to move north and east through Yemen, migrating about 1 mile every year. By 74 thousand years ago, we had made it throughout the Middle East and South-East Asia. Human remains where found along with stone tools in Malaysia, the fact that they where found buried in ashes left by the volcanic eruption in Sumatra of Mt. Toba 73 thousand years ago independently corroborate this.
We begin to adapt to our environment
As we began to move from a dry, hot environment pelted by the sun to a cooler and forested areas, our skin began to lighten up and to adapt to the colder weather, our physiques began to get shorter and stocker to overcome heat loss. It is estimated that it took about 20 thousand years for the skin to change from very dark brown to white. Our height also changed depending on diet consumed.
About 70 thousand years ago, our ancestors discovered Australia followed by Europe 50 thousand years ago. This was by two different migrating “tribes” of course. We expanded into Australia before Europe because between 50 and 80 thousand years ago, the great deserts of the upper Middle East where still impenetrable. Around 50 thousand years ago, weather patterns changed to allow us to pass through onto Europe. We know that we followed the Euphrates river north to Europe because remains have been found that date back to 40 thousand years ago.
In Europe, long before modern humans came, another species of human lived there, called Neanderthals, this species shared the same ancestor as ours but we had been separated for over half a million years. They where supremely adapted to the cold weather, stocky, short and very powerful. Their civilization changed little for 250 thousand years before modern humans took over. They became extinct within 10 thousand years of our arrival to Europe for reasons still unknown to this day but we think it was due to competition. We do know they had the same intelligence as us as we shared the same brain size.
About 35-27 thousand years ago, humans with art, artifacts and relics begin to appear. North America was migrated to multiple times but humans first step foot on it about 25-20 thousand years ago.
Controversy
The nice thing about science is that it is constantly being challenged, based on new understandings and developments that are added to our collective knowledge. Science is not perfect but at least it is evidence based, dates and times may change but the general direction it leads us to is usually correct. There is some controversy to the “African origins” theory, the strongest to date is from China that says essentially humans evolved from a number of places (notably China), not only from Africa. Now, this does not erase all our previous gained knowledge but may accentuate details towards a unified theory regarding our origins.
Bottom line
It probably took well over 120 thousand years to engineer the human body that you enjoy today, appreciate it, so that future generations may also enjoys its beauty.
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lengthen my penis…
lengthen my penis…
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Obviously genetics have not been kind to you but I fail to see what I can do to help you. I guess my article about our collective ancestry really touched a nerve with you.