What is our lineage?

Route1

Been thinking about just how unlikely the odds of being born are, one minor event 200 years ago could prevent you are or I from ever existing. Where do you think we came from, we didn't just pop out of no where. How far back does ones ancestry go?

Ghost Buster

42

Fuzzy Clam

Me Mammy.

I owns halfways out to the road and up to Larry Kennedys and down as far as Rosie Doyles.

There's a fair bit in it lineage wise

wendell borton

According to new research reported in the European Journal of Human Genetics, our most recent common ancestor – the so-called Y-chromosomal Adam – lived on the Earth 208,300 years ago.
http://www.sci-news.com/genetics/science-y-chromosomal-adam-01709.html

gozunda

"Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. Since the dawn of time, roughly a hundred billion human beings have walked the planet Earth."

Arthur C Clarke
A Space Odyssey
1968


Written in 1968 when the population of the planet was 3.5 Billion

2014 the population has doubled and now is over 7 billon


Edit:
Population Reference Bureau - total number of people ever lived = 107 Billion
Minus the 7 million alive today gives approximately 14 dead people for every person alive today.

That's one big pile of bones and a lot of ghosts...

spurious

Mommy's baby, Daddy's? Maybe.

BurnsCarpenter

Probably everything now living shares a common ancestor, meaning every spider, tree, fungus, etc. is a distant cousin.

steddyeddy

Humans go back ~200k years .

antodeco

I'm a direct descendant of the King of Spain. Where he came from.I don't know. Mammy queen ans daddy king?

Route1

God created all is what yous are saying.

Artful_Badger

Odds are kinda pointless when talking about things that have already happened. Considering we are here and are a direct result of everything that preceded us then we are the only actual outcome that was ever going to take place....

Route1

Artful_Badger wrote: »

Odds are kinda pointless when talking about things that have already happened. Considering we are here and are a direct result of everything that preceded us then we are the only actual outcome that could have taken place....

I understand that, but the thought that something so minor can have such great effect is astounding, a kind of butterfly effect.

dxhound2005

African/Neanderthal. I'm not from modern Africa and I have one of the conditions passed on by our hairy cousins.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25944817

Artful_Badger

Route1 wrote: »

I understand that, but the thought that something so minor can have such great effect is astounding, a kind of butterfly effect.

It is pretty astounding how biological life has evolved over the billions of years on this planet. Your lineage goes right back to that very first biological life form on this planet too.

laugh

Bill Bryson:

Not only have you been lucky enough to be attached since time immemorial to a favoured evolutionary line, but you have also been extremely- make that miraculously- fortunate in your personal ancestry. Consider the fact that for 3.8 billion years, a period of time older than the Earth's mountains and rivers and oceans, everyone of your forbears on both sides has been attractive enough to find a mate, healthy enough to reproduce, and sufficiently blessed by fate and circumstances to live long enough to do so. Not one of your pertinent ancestors was squashed, devoured, drowned, starved, stranded, stuck fast, untimely wounded, or otherwise deflected from it's life quest of delivering a tiny charge of genetic material to the right partner at the right moment in order to perpetuate the only possible sequence of hereditary combinations that could result - eventually, astoundingly, and all too briefly- in you.

I was thinking of sending some of my DNA off to Larry Page's missus to find out about my ancestry.

https://www.23andme.com/

Genealogy is a difficult thing in this country.

dxhound2005

laugh wrote: »

Bill Bryson:



I was thinking of sending some of my DNA off to Larry Page's missus to find out about my ancestry.

https://www.23andme.com/

Genealogy is a difficult thing in this country.

I always think of genealogy (congratulations for getting the spelling correct) as being concerned with family going back only to whatever point in the recent past where evidence of births, marriages, deaths, land transfers etc peters out. The DNA record is of a different scale.

laugh

dxhound2005 wrote: »

I always think of genealogy (congratulations for getting the spelling correct) as being concerned with family going back only to whatever point in the recent past where evidence of births, marriages, deaths, land transfers etc peters out. The DNA record is of a different scale.

I guess by ancestry, 23andme mean that they will give you a broad outline of where your genetic markers appear in ethnic groups.

My point on genealogy was a separate one, the records are few, especially for my RC ancestors.

biko

I can trace my ancestry all the way back to my granddad.

van_beano

Artful_Badger wrote: »

Odds are kinda pointless when talking about things that have already happened. Considering we are here and are a direct result of everything that preceded us then we are the only actual outcome that was ever going to take place....

That is actually a very good comment.

Wibbs

dxhound2005 wrote: »

African/Neanderthal. I'm not from modern Africa and I have one of the conditions passed on by our hairy cousins.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25944817

Amazing stuff that. There must have been an awful lot of doin the wild thing with other humans back in the day considering how much of their legacy is still around today. That figure goes up when you see that a lot of these sexy times resulted in infertile offspring if they had kids at all.

Hell I have an extra vertebra just like Homo Erectus. I'm a fcuking caveman on that basis. Cool. Didn't get their muscles mind you.

laugh wrote: »

I guess by ancestry, 23andme mean that they will give you a broad outline of where your genetic markers appear in ethnic groups.

And no way in hell would I give up my genetic map to a crowd associated with Google. OH and pay for the privilege. We're being tracked enough as it is. We're the most tracked and labeled humans in history and most of it has happened in the last decade. Fast forward another decade with a searchable database of people's DNA, just cos some geek thought this was "cool" and companies found another avenue to track people. Fcuk that. IMH of course.

maninasia

Artful_Badger wrote: »

It is pretty astounding how biological life has evolved over the billions of years on this planet. Your lineage goes right back to that very first biological life form on this planet too.

Maybe not; but it does to back a long way.

steddyeddy

23 and me is associated with google as Wibbs says. National Geographic have a good genetic ancestry testing service. It tells you what percentage Neanderthal and Denisovan you are.

DazMarz

Allegedly, one of my ancestors is the father of modern chemistry, Robert Boyle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Boyle

I don't know if this true or not, but I should probably look into it some day!

Artful_Badger

maninasia wrote: »

Maybe not; but it does to back a long way.

How does it not go back all the way? We are a result of reproduction since reproduction began.

maninasia

Yes we are descended from a single common ancestor as far as we know.

But that may not have been the first life form on earth. There could have been multiple different life genesis events or life arrivals, but only one got established or out competed the rest billions of years ago leaving only our lineage to exist.

There is still also the possibility that there are life forms on Earth that are not related to us, but we haven't detected them yet.

Galwayguy35

I'd say we're a right bunch of softies compared to prehistoric people, the men had to go out and kill to eat and a lot of the animals they took on weren't exactly small either.

And women had it tough as well, having babies in a cave with no pain relief must have killed many of them.

Stavros Murphy

I am descended from the bedroom by the stairs. And I'm having coffee. And a smoke.

DEFTLEFTHAND

An O'Connor, a Royal lineage, Ireland's Royal family. Ruaidri was the last High King in 1198. I'm next in line to take the seat at Tara.

steddyeddy

I have an Italian second name so I don't think I'm next in line for any Irish throne

DEFTLEFTHAND

steddyeddy wrote: »

I have an Italian second name so I don't think I'm next in line for any Irish throne

Maybe the Mafia might take you.

Tin Foil Hat

Route1 wrote: »

Been thinking about just how unlikely the odds of being born are, one minor event 200 years ago could prevent you are or I from ever existing. Where do you think we came from, we didn't just pop out of no where. How far back does ones ancestry go?

All the way to biogenisis, OP. Nearly four billion years.

Also, you don't have to go back to some random event 200 years ago to realise the fluke of your existence. If your parents decided to watch a movie that night, instead of heading off upstairs for a poke, then you wouldn't exist. And, even though they obviously choose the ride, if a different sperm won the race you still wouldn't exist. The probability of your existence is pretty much zero.

Cee-Jay-Cee

Well there's me, me mum and dad, me grandad and gradma, their grandparents and their parents and their parents before them and their parents before and their parents before them them and their parents before and their parents before them and their parents before and their parents before them them and their parents before them and their parents before them and their parents before and their parents before them them and their parents before them and their parents before them and their parents before and their parents before them them and their parents before them and their parents before them and their parents before and their parents before them them and their parents before them and their parents before them and their parents before and their parents before them them and their parents before them and their parents before them and their parents before and their parents before them them and their parents before them and their parents before them and their parents before and their parents before them them and their parents before them and their parents before them and their parents before and their parents before them them and their parents before them and their parents before them and their parents before and their parents before them them and their parents before them and their parents before them and their parents before and their parents before them them and their parents before them and their parents before them and their parents before and their parents before them them and their parents before them and their parents before them and their parents before and their parents before them them and their parents before them and their parents before them and their parents before and their parents before them them and their parents before them and their parents before them and their parents before and their parents before them them and their parents before them and their parents before them and their parents before and their parents before them them and their parents before them and their parents before them and their parents before and their parents before them them and their parents before them and I think that's about it.

Foxhound38

wendell borton wrote: »

According to new research reported in the European Journal of Human Genetics, our most recent common ancestor – the so-called Y-chromosomal Adam – lived on the Earth 208,300 years ago.
http://www.sci-news.com/genetics/science-y-chromosomal-adam-01709.html

He was a good lad, or so I believe :pac:

Stavros Murphy

Foxhound38 wrote: »

He was a good lad, or so I believe :pac:

All the other lads hated that Adam lad. He was always riding their women when they were out snaring Wooly Mammoths. Lazy sod he was too. Wouldn't even pick his own berries.

Chazz Michael Michaels

Route1 wrote: »

Been thinking about just how unlikely the odds of being born are, one minor event 200 years ago could prevent you are or I from ever existing

I have a deck of cards, shuffled. I draw an Eight of Hearts from the deck. Then I draw a Nine of Spades, then a Jack of Clubs, and finally a Two of Diamonds.

Odds of this occurring = 1/52 * 1/51 * 1/50 * 1/49

6497400 to 1. Unlikely! But that only matters if you predicted the outcome before you drew the four cards. Everything looks improbable, when viewed, ex ante.