by vision-master » Mon 19 Jan 2009, 17:40:07
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SteinarN', 'I')'m not absolutely sure when the "beginning" of our species was. Maybe 50,000 years ago? It is at least as long ago that the common ancestor to all modern days humans, like the white european, chinese, australian aborignies, american indians and warious African populations was still alive. Thus the said "variations" of the human species had not yet come into existence.
Anyway, genetic and fossil evidence clearly indicates the common ancestor to all said modern human beeings originated in Africa and spread out from there some 50,000 or 100,000 years ago. The human as a species must be as old as the common ancestor or we wouldn't be one species but several closely related species.
Logically that common ancestor didn't quite look like any of the nowadays humans, but still probably close the the modern Africans as they still live in the same environment.
As I see it the DNA has changed slightly since the origin of our species. The different "brands" of modern days humans has developed various characteristics and adaptions to various environments on the Eart. Take skin colour as an example. Eskimos and most europeans have skin color adapted to a lifestyle with not that much sun and where the body is covered in clothes as opposed to Africans. This small difference requires a slight difference in the DNA.
Therefore our DNA must have changed ever so slightly since the origin of our species.
Human footprint found next to Dinosaurs print
We have been around a lot longer than 100,000 years.