'Adam' and 'Eve' May have Roamed the Earth Closer in Time than Previously Thought

Modern society's "Adam" and "Eve" may have existed more closely in time than previously thought, a pair of new studies suggest.

Far back in ancient history lived a man who carried the Y chromosome that would eventually become the only one shared by men today. Meanwhile, way back when was a woman who carried the mitochondria that alone went on to become that shared by humans everywhere.

And while current thought places this "Adam" and "Eve" of sorts far apart from one another on the time scale, the studies, both published in the journal Science, suggest this separation may not have been as great as once thought.

One team, led by Paolo Francalacci of the University of Sassari in Italy, came to the conclusion that everybody's last common male ancestor lived between 180,000 and 200,000 years ago. Meanwhile, a team led by Carlos Bustamante of Stanford University discovered that modern mitochondria appeared in people somewhere around 99,000 to 148,000 years ago.

And while this may seem like some like a major discrepancy, previous estimates regarding when "Adam" roamed the Earth fell between 50,000 years and 350,000 years ago, while previous estimates of "Eve" ranged from 150,000 to 240,000 years ago.

About their findings, Bustamante told Science News, "We're not saying they're exact contemporaries or they actually met or all men and women descended from the same couple."

Adding credence to the study regarding the development of the study of the male is the fact that the researchers worked with far more Y chromosome than anyone before them.

"It's great to see large-scale sequencing being applied to the Y chromosome," Chris Tyler-Smith, who studies genetics and human evolution with the U.K.'s Wellcome Trust, told Popular Science. "I think this is the future of Y chromosome study."