Out of Africa?


   The consensus of opinion among the experts is that modern man originated in Africa about 100,000 years ago. But because of the discovery of humanoid fossils in Asia and elsewhere an alternative theory suggests that the origin of man was not a unique event but that modern man is descended from a mixture of regional populations.

   This concept was put to the test (Science, vol. 292, p. 115) at the Human Genetics Center in Houston, Texas by testing more than 12,000 men from across Asia. The results using DNA from three markers in the Y chromosome revealed that the ancestors of all of these men came from Africa between 35,000 and 89,000 years ago, thereby ruling out the idea of descent from regional populations.

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