Like many people, I have had a DNA test to have a look at my ancestral origins. In general, there were no huge surprises, except that I was
a lot more Irish than I would have thought.
The DNA tests that are available at ANCESTRY and 23andME can give you a good idea where your ancestors came from in the last few thousand years and for many people, these tests can
provide surprises, as it did for some of the residents of an entire Bondi apartment, in Australia, who took
Ancestry DNA tests.
When Bondi apartment dweller, Theo Athanasopoulos was asked, ‘What do you think you’ll find’? Before the test, he said, 'Basically Greek, Greek, and more Greek'. Mostly his DNA origins were Greek but 18% of his DNA was European East and 2% Asia South.
In the same apartment block, Nina Holand who hailed from a Norwegian background found out that she is actually a quarter Irish, with traces of South Asia.
Interestingly, the original hunter-gatherer populations of Ireland were
overwhelmed by two major populations who migrated into Ireland more than 8000 years ago from the southern Mediterranean and the Pontic steppe of southern Russia.
These populations mixed together and about 4000 years ago the Irish genome became distinctive. It is also thought that the ancient Russian language is the basis of the modern, Irish language.
If you would like to get an idea about the more ancient origins of your DNA, you can download your raw DNA data and upload it to GEDmatch (free). These archaic matches compare your DNA with the bodies of ancient people who have been found and whose DNA has been sequenced.
Whilst the vast majority of my DNA is European, I have some interesting remnants of the extinct subspecies of human, the Denisovans. Denisovan DNA was
extracted from a tooth fossil found in the remote Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains in Siberia.
According to DNA analysis, it has been found that modern humans, Neanderthals, and the Denisovan hominin last shared
a common ancestor around
1 million years ago. Denisovans are, however, a sister group to the Neanderthals, and they probably interbred with modern humans about 100 generations after they interbred with Neanderthals.
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| Denisova Cave,Siberia, Russia |
Most non-Africans have a little bit Neanderthal DNA. But those of South Asian descent tend to have a bit of Denisovan DNA.
Analysis of DNA also reveals a complex web of interbreeding between Denisovan, Neanderthal, and human genomes. However, 8% of the Denisovan genome comes from interbreeding with an unknown species from Asia one million years ago.
The mainstream view on human evolution is that Homo erectus was in Africa two million years ago and Homo heidelbergensis evolved about 600,000 years ago. Heidelbergensis moved out of Africa about 400,000 years ago and separated, forming two populations; one went west and the other east. These groups evolved separately with the eastern populations becoming the Denisovian and the Western population becoming the Neanderthals. Heidelbergensis, however, remained in Africa and evolved into homo sapiens.
Asian scientists, however, contend that East Asia played a central role in human evolution and while this is not yet accepted, the discovery of the 15,000-year-old, Hobbit, or
Homo floresiensis, a one metre tall human with a brain the size of a grapefruit, from the island of Flores in eastern Indonesia, has raised some interesting questions.
Oh, and before I go, did you know that red hair was probably common amongst the Neanderthals? Mutations on the melanocortin 1 receptor gene (MCR1) account for red hair and pale skin.
