First Node Of Common Ancestry

[petrushkagoogol]

If you reverse engineer all humans to the maximum depth by common ancestry based on parenthood, what would the common origin be -

 

A single man and a single woman (like the Biblical origin)

OR

A single celled DNA with undifferentiated sex chromosomes ? 

[exchemist]

 

If you reverse engineer all humans to the maximum depth by common ancestry based on parenthood, what would the common origin be -

 

A single man and a single woman (like the Biblical origin)

OR

A single celled DNA with undifferentiated sex chromosomes ? 

 

Is this a serious question, or is it just coat-trailing for creationists? 

[JMJones0424]

Both. If one could construct an accurate lineage of an individual human, then it would encompass both a single man and a single woman and a single-celled organism containing DNA and undifferentiated sex chromosomes.

 

I suspect your question involves more, though.  Why don't you ask what you intend to ask?

Edited March 8, 2017 by JMJones0424

[petrushkagoogol]

Is this a serious question, or is it just coat-trailing for creationists? 

 

 

Both. If one could construct an accurate lineage of an individual human, then it would encompass both a single man and a single woman and a single-celled organism containing DNA and undifferentiated sex chromosomes.

 

I suspect your question involves more, though.  Why don't you ask what you intend to ask?

 

Let me rephrase the question. Can we identify the point in time when the human genome took it's present form ?

I am trying to understand as to when we can say that man and woman, as we know today, could be identified.

And NO, I am not canvassing for any point of view, just postulating,,,,,,

(something like the Big Bang in cosmic evolution signaled the beginning of a new epoch.) 

[exchemist]

Let me rephrase the question. Can we identify the point in time when the human genome took it's present form ?

I am trying to understand as to when we can say that man and woman, as we know today, could be identified.

And NO, I am not canvassing for any point of view, just postulating,,,,,,

(something like the Big Bang in cosmic evolution signaled the beginning of a new epoch.) 

Well we have a fairly good idea, from fossils, of roughly when homo sapiens sapiens appeared.

 

But so far as I know (I'm very much open to correction, as I am far from expert), it is not possible to discover from DNA analysis the time in history at which a change in the genome took place. 

[OceanBreeze]

Let me rephrase the question. Can we identify the point in time when the human genome took it's present form ?

I am trying to understand as to when we can say that man and woman, as we know today, could be identified.

And NO, I am not canvassing for any point of view, just postulating,,,,,,

(something like the Big Bang in cosmic evolution signaled the beginning of a new epoch.) 

 

 

If you are limiting your question only to anatomically modern humans (Home sapiens), the Mitochondrial Eve hypothesis postulates a relatively recent origin of all contemporary humans in Africa some 100 to 200 thousand years ago.

 

But there is no definitive point in time or sharp dividing line between anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) and ancestral human species, such as Homo erectus, and other subspecies such as the Neanderthals. In fact, anthropologists now say that Neanderthals, Denisovans, and others labeled as archaic human lineages are in fact an interbreeding part of the modern human lineage.

[billvon]

 

If you reverse engineer all humans to the maximum depth by common ancestry based on parenthood, what would the common origin be -

 

A single man and a single woman (like the Biblical origin)

OR

A single celled DNA with undifferentiated sex chromosomes ? 

 

You can work backwards to our most recent common ancestor, both male and female.  The most recent common ancestor for humans (female) lived about 200,000 years ago, and the most recent common ancestor (male) lived about 400,000 years ago. 

 

This, of course, does not mean that that was the first man or first woman - just that all of us are related through that person.

 

 

Can we identify the point in time when the human genome took it's present form ?

I am trying to understand as to when we can say that man and woman, as we know today, could be identified.

It happened gradually over millions of years, so there is no one point at which you'd say "he is not human but his son is."

[petrushkagoogol]

Well we have a fairly good idea, from fossils, of roughly when homo sapiens sapiens appeared.

 

But so far as I know (I'm very much open to correction, as I am far from expert), it is not possible to discover from DNA analysis the time in history at which a change in the genome took place. 

 

 

If you are limiting your question only to anatomically modern humans (Home sapiens), the Mitochondrial Eve hypothesis postulates a relatively recent origin of all contemporary humans in Africa some 100 to 200 thousand years ago.

 

But there is no definitive point in time or sharp dividing line between anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) and ancestral human species, such as Homo erectus, and other subspecies such as the Neanderthals. In fact, anthropologists now say that Neanderthals, Denisovans, and others labeled as archaic human lineages are in fact an interbreeding part of the modern human lineage.

 

 

You can work backwards to our most recent common ancestor, both male and female.  The most recent common ancestor for humans (female) lived about 200,000 years ago, and the most recent common ancestor (male) lived about 400,000 years ago. 

 

This, of course, does not mean that that was the first man or first woman - just that all of us are related through that person.

 

 

It happened gradually over millions of years, so there is no one point at which you'd say "he is not human but his son is."

 

Inferring from the discussion, it seems all mankind is connected, with people emphasizing on the more immediate connections, which we call "family".

[CraigD]

I think everyone has done a good job of explaining that you and I are not the descendent of a one man and one woman, or a one single celled organism. :thumbs_up

 

I’d like to take a shot at this question

Let me rephrase the question. Can we identify the point in time when the human genome took it's present form ?

Since every living human has different genes, and even slightly different numbers of genes, we have to agree on what we mean by the “form” of the human genome.

 

One way is to define it as the number and rough size of its chromosomes, which describes the physical structure of the genome. The latest major change in the human chromosome was the fusing of 2 chromosomes into the single human chromosome 2, resulting in normal humans having 23 chromosomes, rather than the 24 found in all other great ape species.

 

As best I can tell, the appearance of chromosome 2, and thus of the physical structure of the present day human genome, can be narrowed down only to between the human-chimpanzee split 4,000,000 years ago, and the human- Neanderthal/Denisovan split about 800,000 years ago. Analysis of preserved Denisovan DNA show that they had the same chromosome 2 we have (source).