Mungo man MtDNA sequencing & dating of Mungo finds.?

Question

Several old friends (Anthropology Proffs) of mine have almost come to blows over dating of Mungo man & MtDNA results of the find. Needless to say, one is an "out of Africa" buff while the other subscribes to the "regional evolution" of Homo Sapien. Is any project underway to do a complete genome sequencing of the find, using the new technology being used on Neandertal? I've been told Mungo man's MtDNA is closer to neandertal, than to modern sapien, despite the modern appearance of the skeleton? Any new data or enlightenment on this? Dating varies from 42,000 to 66,000 on this find... much dispute over methods.

Answer 1

Mungo man's mitochondrial DNA pre-dates our modern mitochondrial Eve by a lot, more like Neanderthals, it's true. I think the latest date for him was 40 k years, give or take.

There is some evidence that a previous wave of human colonists made it out of Africa a REALLY long time ago and into Australia. They are thought to be the pre Aboriginal people who painted the Bradshaw paintings. These are seriously old rock paintings in Australia. This could explain why the odd mt DNA comes from, an archaic human population that failed to establish itself in the modern mtDNA lineages we have today. Could have been H.Erectus though. No-one knows for sure.

The find was too old to do full sequence on. There was only just enough viable matter to get a mt DNA sample.

Here's a link to the Bradshaw paintings, it's a useful site for this kind of subject.

http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/bradsh...

Answer 2

I have not heard of the information but this is interesting, would like to hear more. What I can not see how we all come from one person? In line breeding you have to be careful not to cross siblings or litter mates. To me the DNA of the Aborigines, the Eskimos, the Siberians and one of the central African tribes should be compared. Those should be close if we come from one line.

Answer 3

interesting. the peking man might be "regional evolution ' too.