ADAM lived tens of thousands of years after Eve, say geneticists. An extensive analysis of men’s Y chromosomes suggests that the “father” of humankind is far younger than our mother.
Thanks to two genetic quirks, geneticists can trace our maternal and paternal lineages separately. The energy-producing structures in our cells, mitochondria, contain DNA and are inherited solely from our mother. In contrast, the Y chromosome, which contains the genes for “maleness”, is inherited only from fathers.
Genetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences has revealed that all modern human mitochondria are derived from a single maternal ancestor-“mitochondrial Eve”-who lived around 140,000…
