A Ghost wrote:I already knew humans are derived from Africa.
The oldest human ever found was found in Africa, they named her "Lucy"
Francis Collins, the director of the human genome project has asserted that humans derive from an original sampling of humans from an original location (and he would be in a position to know the aggregate of modern science's current [though still somewhat imperfect] results on the origins of humanity).
The location of humanity's origin indicated by the mDNA and yDNA analysis is eastern Africa, not the traditional biblical site, Mesopotamia. Identification of the eastern African site, however, is based on the observations that east Africans manifest the greatest genetic diversity of all humanity's ethnic groups-- and on the assumption that human migration and human mating is random.
The latter assumption fails the test; however, of both history and observation. Human migration and human mating practices are far more random. For example, archeological evidence testify to the early, rapid migration of humanity from a single location to diverse distant lands, whereupon the migrating peoples ceased their migration and settled in their chosen destinations (1).
In most human population groups, people willingly consider a diversity of ethnicities for marriage partners. But, especially in Africa, this was not always the case. For example, 19th-century European explorers to central Africa were surprised to observe tribes of pygmies living adjacent to tribes of extraordinarily tall people.
Given that not all human groups migrate and mate like other species, the genetic evidence for human origins simply identifies the single location for the origin of humanity as somewhere near northeastern Africa, which could include any region near the junction of Asia, Europe, and Africa.
The genetic evidence for the location of humanity's origin remains somewhat ambiguous (in scientific terms).
The oldest member of Australopithecus, A. anamensis, existed between
4.2 and 3.8 million years ago, based on fossils recovered near Lake Turkana Kenya. Australopithecus afarensis fossils have been recovered in eastern Africa and date to between 4 and 3 million years old. "Lucy" (discovered in the early 1970s by Donald Johnson) is one of the best-known specimens.
While there is no DNA analysis for Lucy, mDNA analysis exists for a more modern group of hominids known as Neanderthal. What's important about this analysis is that it does not, in any way, overlap mDNA for humans (earliest mDNA on hand dates as far back as 25,000 years ago). This observation coupled with marked differences between Neanderthal and human mDNA establish beyond reasonable doubt that Neanderthals made no contribution to the human gene pool.
Another interesting group H. erectus manifests morphological features radically different from either humans or Neanderthals and because all three species experience no observable evolutionary change, it appears highly unlikely that H. erectus could be the ancestor of either Neaderthals, archaic H. Sapiens, or modern humans.
Wherever extensive fossil evidence exists, it shows that individuals within the different hominid species mature at a much faster rate than do humans. For example, the skull of a H. erectus infant (about one year old at the time of death) revealed a brain size about 84 percent of that of an adult. This size compares with 50 percent for a one year old human and about 80 percent for a one year old modern ape. Likewise comparisons of Neanderthal skulls from individuals ranging in age at the time of death from six months to young adulthood show both a much more rapid craniofacial maturation and a much more rapid dental development than humans manifest.
Long lasting childhood and adolescence during with the brain continues to grow and develop appears to be a unique hallmark of the human species. Humans beings are vastly over-endowed for a hunter-gatherer or simple agricultural lifestyle. Though many examples are cited, dexterity, intellectual capacity, and sex drive are amongh those that set Homo sapiens sapiens apart from all other hominids and animals.
Calculations based on new findings place the date for the first mDNA woman close to 50,000 years ago in line with the yDNA date and corresponds with the biblical date for the creation of Adam and Eve basedon reasonable calibration of the Gensis genealogies. The dates for the explosive emergence of advanced art, advanced tools, complex language, clothing, and jewelry corrobate this timeing for the first human pair. This distinctive provides another support to a huge volume of support for the conclusion that hominids did not give rise to human beings.
There is much much more to discuss along these lines. Much much more. But I have to get back to living this gift we call life

. Peace and God bless you.
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(1)Vincent Macaulay et al., "Single Rapid Costal Settlement of Asia Revealed by Analysis of Complete Mitochondrial Genomes," Science 308 (2005): 1034-1036.