Why is it likely that the most recent common ancestor of all humans was a black person from Africa?

Question

I mean, what kind of data (archaeological/biological/etc) was used to determine this?

Answer 1

can't answer, but i just watched a program about this on the history channel. something about a common link in the dna structure?

Answer 2

Because according to findings, the oldest human remains were found in Africa. Thus, linking the existence of human kind to Africa.

Answer 3

when the world was new, the continents were joined, Africa has been proven to be where the first humans origenated from. I don't know the full story, but have seen it many times in documentaries.....it makes very interesting watching..I don't personnaly think you sound as if you are being racist

Answer 4

Because we're all black at heart!

oh and btw....the common ancestor of all humans from a black person?!?!?!

...are you saying that black persons aren't humans?

Answer 5

Mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosomes all track back to Africa, and they have the most variety in their neutral DNA markers. It means they have the oldest population.

Although.. A fairly large number of people believe Europeans picked up their colouring from the Neanderthals. Y chromosomes and Mt DNA are both subject to natural selection, so it's still on the cards, as a minority contributor is easy to lose. The fossil record seems to support interbreeding too.

Answer 6

I would suggest going to the National Geographics Genotype Program websites and see what they have to say.

This is the modern hooey-balooey; evidence concludes that "Lucy", claimed to be the oldest human and found in the Oldavai Gorge, was, in fact, a CHIMPANZEE.

While they claim people came "out of Africa" 60,000 to 100,000 years ago, people were living in settlements in France and other countries BEFORE then.

Me, I don't care where the MCA (most common ancestor) came from; but, ask the Native Americans and you will get a different answer.

As no one has any PROOF, just accept whatever THEORY you want.

Answer 7

Possibly  because true research and documentation in the newest history books are finally telling the truth. Many of the new school students know this information. It's those who write the history books who fail to divulge the truth about much of the history which has attempted to eliminiate or dispel anything the black man has accomplished in this world.

Answer 8

Most archaeologists accept the "Out of Africa" theory for a variety of reasons.  First off, it's just a lot simpler to think that a species evolved once rather than several times.  Every race is of the same species, or else you couldn't have mixed-race people who are fertile.  Secondly, the oldest human fossils were found in Africa.  

Then there's gene theory.  Africans have more genetic variation than peoples from any other continent, suggesting that they've had the longest amount of time to build up a bunch of mutations.  Native Americans are the opposite; they have the least genetic variation because they all came from a relatively small group that's only been isolated for probably about 10-15,000 years.  This doesn't mean that one group is more evolved or more advanced, of course.  Geneticists have also been able to figure, using mitochondrial DNA, that our most recent common matrilineal ancestor was probably a woman living about 140,000 years ago somewhere around Ethiopia, Kenya, or Tanzania.  Wikipedia has more about her.  They are pretty sure she's African because the peoples whose mitochondrial lineages branch off earliest are Africans, and everyone else's branches off of theirs.  And, again, African mitochondrial DNA shows more variation, as with their regular DNA, suggesting that it's had more time to mutate.

Answer 9

They did find some pretty old evidence in Africa

Answer 10

They did a comparson of mitochondrial DNA, which women pass onto their offspring.  The study indicated that everyone can be traced back to a woman in Africa a hundred thousand plus years ago.  The problem with this is that there is no mention of possible migration.  There is no mention of other DNA.  Perhaps we also have some common ancestor in Asia.  There seems to be a desire in some to show that we evovled from Africans to demonstrate that Europeans are superior since we evolved from Africans.  I watched a show about this recently and saw an article where an anthropologist was talking to a Kung! (Bushman) from the southern Africa and he told him that he was the trunk of the tree.  This implied that all races diverged from them.