Palaeontology

Chimpanzee 'Adam' lived one million years ago

By T.K. Randall
February 28, 2016 ·  6 comments

The research tells us a lot about primate mating practices. Image Credit: GFDL 1.2 Ikiwaner The research, which was headed up by Professor Mark Jobling from the University of Leicester's Department of Genetics, involved building up a detailed genealogical tree by investigating how certain DNA sequences were passed down through generations of primates.

Their findings showed that the earliest chimpanzee dates back one million years while the earliest gorilla dates back 100,000 years. The earliest human, by contrast, dates back 200,000 years."This suggests that over the long period of human evolution our choice of partners has not been a free-for-all, and that it's likely that humans have practiced a polygynous system where a few men have access to most of the women, and many men don't have access – over our evolutionary history as a species," said Professor Jobling.

"This is more like the gorilla system than the chimpanzee ‘multimale-multifemale' mating system."

Source: Tech Times | Comments (6)

Tags: Chimpanzee, Adam, Human