Ancestral DNA Split Almost Lead to Two Human Races

November 3, 2008 | Email This Post Email This Post | Print This Post Print This Post

Maybe it’s just me but I found this rather fascinating….

Although present-day people carry a signature of the ancient split in their DNA, today’s Africans are part of a single population. The researchers compiled a “family tree” of different mitochondrial DNA groupings found in Africa. A major split occurred near the root of the tree as early as 150,000 years ago.

On one side of this divide are the mitochondrial lineages now found predominantly in East and West Africa, and all maternal lineages found outside Africa.

On the other side of the divide are lineages predominantly found in the Khoi and San (Khoisan) hunter-gatherer people of southern Africa.

Many African populations today harbour a mixture of both.

Read the full study at BBC

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About the author: Jonathan Gosier is a software developer, writer and social entrepreneur. He currently lives in Kampala, Uganda where he incubates and invests in East African entrepreneurs as the CEO of Appfrica Labs. He's also a TED Fellow.
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