What Does DNA Testing Tell us About Mankinds Early History?
Present-day mitochondrial DNA testing has given us a lot of valuable information about the early history of mankind. Its most important contribution has been verifying the Out-of-Africa theory, also known as the recent single origin hypothesis. The Out-of-Africa theory asserts that all humanity descends from one founding group that originated in East Africa, probably somewhere around modern-day Tanzania. Its main competitor, now largely dismissed, is the Multiple Origin theory, a group of related claims that mankind separately originated in different areas, from different pre-human apes, and subsequently interbred. The kind of DNA testing used most frequently to study humanity’s early origins is mtDNA testing, also known as mitochondrial DNA. Mitochondrial DNA consists of small bits of DNA found in the mitochondria (power plants) of cells. It is passed along matrilineally, meaning that you get your mtDNA from your mother. There is another type of DNA, Y-chromosomal DNA, that is passed
