Modelling the recent common ancestry of all living humans. Export

@article{citeulike:438322, abstract = {If a common ancestor of all living humans is defined as an individual who is a genealogical ancestor of all present-day people, the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) for a randomly mating population would have lived in the very recent past. However, the random mating model ignores essential aspects of population substructure, such as the tendency of individuals to choose mates from the same social group, and the relative isolation of geographically separated groups. Here we show that recent common ancestors also emerge from two models incorporating substantial population substructure. One model, designed for simplicity and theoretical insight, yields explicit mathematical results through a probabilistic analysis. A more elaborate second model, designed to capture historical population dynamics in a more realistic way, is analysed computationally through Monte Carlo simulations. These analyses suggest that the genealogies of all living humans overlap in remarkable ways in the recent past. In particular, the MRCA of all present-day humans lived just a few thousand years ago in these models. Moreover, among all individuals living more than just a few thousand years earlier than the MRCA, each present-day human has exactly the same set of genealogical ancestors.}, author = {Rohde, Douglas L. and Olson, Steve and Chang, Joseph T.}, citeulike-article-id = {438322}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature02842}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature02842}, citeulike-linkout-2 = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15457259}, citeulike-linkout-3 = {http://www.hubmed.org/display.cgi?uids=15457259}, day = {30}, doi = {10.1038/nature02842}, issn = {1476-4687}, journal = {Nature}, keywords = {ancestry, cool}, month = {September}, number = {7008}, pages = {562--566}, posted-at = {2009-10-01 07:31:05}, priority = {0}, publisher = {Nature Publishing Group}, title = {Modelling the recent common ancestry of all living humans.}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature02842}, volume = {431}, year = {2004} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:438322 L3 - citeulike-article-id:438322 N2 - If a common ancestor of all living humans is defined as an individual who is a genealogical ancestor of all present-day people, the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) for a randomly mating population would have lived in the very recent past. However, the random mating model ignores essential aspects of population substructure, such as the tendency of individuals to choose mates from the same social group, and the relative isolation of geographically separated groups. Here we show that recent common ancestors also emerge from two models incorporating substantial population substructure. One model, designed for simplicity and theoretical insight, yields explicit mathematical results through a probabilistic analysis. A more elaborate second model, designed to capture historical population dynamics in a more realistic way, is analysed computationally through Monte Carlo simulations. These analyses suggest that the genealogies of all living humans overlap in remarkable ways in the recent past. In particular, the MRCA of all present-day humans lived just a few thousand years ago in these models. Moreover, among all individuals living more than just a few thousand years earlier than the MRCA, each present-day human has exactly the same set of genealogical ancestors. IS - 7008 JF - Nature SN - 1476-4687 EP - 566 TI - Modelling the recent common ancestry of all living humans. PB - Nature Publishing Group VL - 431 SP - 562 KW - ancestry KW - cool AU - Rohde, Douglas AU - Olson, Steve AU - Chang, Joseph PY - 2004/09/30/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature02842 ER -