Will Dunham

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – From Tokyo’s bustling streets to Quito in Ecuador, Novosibirsk, Siberia, to Quito in Ecuador, to congested Cairo, to desert towns like Truth or Consequences in New Mexico, everyone is part of a single family.

The researchers on Thursday emphasized this point by unveiling the largest ever Homo sapiens family tree. It was based both upon modern and old genome data from over 3,600 individuals from all around the globe. These results were referred to as the “genealogy that everyone”

It helps map the genetic relationships of people worldwide and delineate their human genetic diversity. This is a study that began in Africa with our species before expanding to other parts.

Anthony Wilder Wohns is a researcher in genetics at Harvard University. He was the lead author of the Science study.

“The earliest of our ancestors can be traced back in time and to the modern Sudanese geographic area. They lived from 250,000 years to 300,000. Years ago, which is a lot older than the current age estimates of Homo sapiens. Wohns explained that bits of our DNA were inherited from people we don’t recognise as modern humans.

Wohns stated that this million-year-old genetic contribution probably came from Homo. Homo and Homo erectus lived approximately 1.9million years ago until 110,000 years back. They were the first human-evolved species with similar body proportions to ours.

This study was led by Oxford’s Big Data Institute. It also showed how genetic descendants of extinct species like the Denisovans or Neanderthals were passed on to modern-day humans around the globe, but not in Africa.

Wohns stated that while Oceania and Papua New Guinea have large numbers of Denisovan ancestry respectively, even Europeans have some ancestry similar to these people.

This study shed some light on the timing and location of major population changes, including large-scale migrations “outside Africa”, which led to our species moving to faraway locales. There was also occasional interbreeding between Denisovans or Neanderthals.

To learn more about ancestral relations between people, our method employs DNA sequences. We try to track how genes have changed in the past and to pass down the genetic information to our descendants,” Wohns explained.

Wohns said, “Moreover we can also estimate the approximate geographical location of our ancestors.”

Another study has shown that Homo sapiens left Africa in different times during the ancient past. New research suggests that 72,000 years ago was the date of the largest departure.

It is possible that the study indicates that humans may have lived in the Americas or Oceania before archaeological evidence suggests otherwise. 

“Our method estimated that there were ancestors in the Americas by 56,000 years ago. We also estimated significant numbers of human ancestors in Oceania – specifically Papua New Guinea – by 140,000 years ago,” Wohns added. But this evidence isn’t as strong as a fossil or radiocarbon-dated instrument.

Researchers built the genealogy from 3,601 genetic data from individuals around the globe and 8 ancient DNA samples. The oldest, which came from Neanderthal, is approximately 110,000 years old. It was found in a Siberian cave. These genome fragments were taken from 3500 people, but not used to create the genealogy.

Wohns stated that “the story of humanity can be written in our genes” and “reconstruction our genealogy lets us read this history.”