Human Journey
Image © YDNA
People from different regions of the earth may be evolving apart in modern times, but DNA studies show we all share a common female ancestor who lived in Africa about 140,000 years ago. In addition, all living men share a common male ancestor who lived in Africa about 60,000 years ago. Sometime thereafter, their descendants began a global trek, first populating southern Asia, China, and Java and later Europe. This kind of genetic anthropology is known as haplotype mapping because genetic variants in the male Y chromosome and maternal mitochondrial DNA are often inherited together in segments called haplotypes, with each haplotype representing a unique mutation away from the original ancestral male and female. The map at left is called a haplogroup map because it reflects changes in group populations rather than in individuals. The flowing colored lines represent the movement of specific mutations in male DNA (and the adaptations they represent) as humans migrated out of Africa and spread throughout the rest of the world. —Pamela Weintraub
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