DNA analysis uproots the human family tree

So our species did not originate in one place. They are the result of a long series of strange encounters between the adventurous ancestors of Homo sapiens who lived throughout Africa.

However, if we trace the new family tree back into the past—to a time about 700,000 years before our species appeared—all the branches converge at one point: the root of the family tree. It is basically the common starting point of humanity. Another new study discovered where on Earth this root was found.

The root of the family tree has been found

in Extensive analysis Researchers from the United States, Austria and the United Kingdom used databases containing DNA maps of 215 populations around the world. Generation after generation, researchers have gone back in time to determine when groups split up and where it likely happened.

Whenever they saw such a division between two generations, they assumed that it occurred geographically between the location of the two new generations.

The researchers translated all this data into computer animations showing how our spread gets smaller and smaller as we go back in time, until it finally converges at a single point two million years ago. Our lineage is traced back even further – but what is even more interesting is the geographical location of origin.

Video: Scientists trace the spread of humans back 2 million years