Primitive man and his woman sitting near the fire in the cave
Primitive man and his woman sitting near the fire in the cave
Unique Origin Research Discovering Human Uniqueness
Articles

A Single-Couple Human Origin is Possible

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Abstract: The problem of inferring history from genetic data is complex and underdetermined; there are many possible scenarios that would explain the same data. It can be made more tractable by making reasonable simplifications to the model, but it is continually important to remember what has been demonstrated and what is merely a parsimonious working assumption. In this paper we have chosen to model the demographic ancestry of humanity using the simplest of assumptions, with a homogeneous population whose size can vary over time. All other assumptions such as the mutation rates were standard, and no natural selection was in operation. Using a previously published backwards simulation method and some newly developed and faster algorithms, we run our single-couple origin model of humanity and compare the results to allele frequency spectra and linkage disequilibrium statistics from current genetic data. We show that a single-couple origin of humanity as recent as 500kya is consistent with data. With only minor modifications of our parsimonious model assumptions, we suggest that a single-couple origin 100kya, or more recently, is possible.


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Ann Gauger

Senior Fellow, Center for Science and Culture
Dr. Ann Gauger is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, and Senior Research Scientist at the Biologic Institute in Seattle, Washington. She received her Bachelor's degree from MIT and her Ph.D. from the University of Washington Department of Zoology. She held a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, where her work was on the molecular motor kinesin.

Ola Hössjer

Professor of Mathematical Statistics, Stockholm University
Ola Hössjer has been professor of mathematical statistics at Stockholm University, Sweden, since 2002. He has done research in statistics and probability theory with applications in population genetics, epidemiology, and insurance mathematics. Hössjer has authored more than one hundred publications, supervised thirteen PhD students, and in 2009 received the Gustafsson Prize in Mathematics. His current research interests include exploring the limits of evolutionary theory and quantifying fine tuning in biology and physics.