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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identical_ancestors_point https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identical_ancestors_point > In 2004, Rohde, Olson and Chang showed throug

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identical_ancestors_point https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identical_ancestors_point > In 2004, Rohde, Olson and Chang showed through simulations that the Identical Ancestors Point for all humans is surprisingly recent, on the order of 5,000-15,000 years ago. How can different populations of modern humans have interbred with different hominin species around 50k years ago when ALL of today's humans had the EXACT SAME SET OF ANCESTORS as recently as 15k years ago?

dragonwriter 7y ago
> How can different populations of modern humans have interbred with different hominin species around 50k years ago when ALL of today's humans had the EXACT SAME SET OF ANCESTORS as recently as 15k years ago? Differences in past populations, including the interbreeding at issue, can be inferred from modern genes for reasons actually laid out in your own link, in the paragraph after the one you quoted: All living people share exactly the same set of ancestors from this point back, all the way to the very first single-celled organism. However, people will vary widely in how much ancestry and genes they inherit from each ancestor, which will cause them to have very different genotypes and phenotypes.
- excalibur 7y ago
  This actually makes sense, thank you for actually reading the Wikipedia page rather than just searching for a quote :) It doesn't really contradict this article, but there were a number of articles a couple of years ago about how Europeans had Neanderthal DNA that other ethnicities didn't share. In reality all modern humans are descended from the exact same Neanderthals, but Europeans still retain more of their genes.
mabbo 7y ago
15k years isn't so short a period. Suppose a generation every 20 years or so. 50 per millennium. 750 generations in 15k years. If one person per generation settles 120 km further east than he/she was born (and odds are there would be more than just one) then 750 generations would be long enough to circle the planet twice. Genes travel slowly, but in many directions at once. And there may be some advantage to the offspring of two people genetically "far" from each other, reinforcing via evolution whatever instinct lead to them travel. 15k years is more than enough time for all of us to share an ancestry.

dragonwriter 7y ago

> How can different populations of modern humans have interbred with different hominin species around 50k years ago when ALL of today's humans had the EXACT SAME SET OF ANCESTORS as recently as 15k years ago? Differences in past populations, including the interbreeding at issue, can be inferred from modern genes for reasons actually laid out in your own link, in the paragraph after the one you quoted: All living people share exactly the same set of ancestors from this point back, all the way to the very first single-celled organism. However, people will vary widely in how much ancestry and genes they inherit from each ancestor, which will cause them to have very different genotypes and phenotypes.

excalibur 7y ago
This actually makes sense, thank you for actually reading the Wikipedia page rather than just searching for a quote :) It doesn't really contradict this article, but there were a number of articles a couple of years ago about how Europeans had Neanderthal DNA that other ethnicities didn't share. In reality all modern humans are descended from the exact same Neanderthals, but Europeans still retain more of their genes.

mabbo 7y ago

15k years isn't so short a period. Suppose a generation every 20 years or so. 50 per millennium. 750 generations in 15k years. If one person per generation settles 120 km further east than he/she was born (and odds are there would be more than just one) then 750 generations would be long enough to circle the planet twice. Genes travel slowly, but in many directions at once. And there may be some advantage to the offspring of two people genetically "far" from each other, reinforcing via evolution whatever instinct lead to them travel. 15k years is more than enough time for all of us to share an ancestry.