Thread by @Graham_Coop

Note that our most recent genealogical common ancestor was one of the millions of people alive at that time, and was no one special.

I can claim that the last genealogical common ancestor of humanity lived in Africa or East Asia, and have a similar chance of being right. 2/n

On a personal level, I find the hypothesis strange. There's nothing special about being descended from this common ancestor. Millions of people were born before this (mostly meaningless) genealogical common ancestor and were just as wonderfully human.

Millions of people were born after a genealogical common ancestor but were not descended from them. These people built amazing buildings, civilizations, and art and lived incredible lives all over the world. They are just as much part of humanity. 4/n

It's a neat parlour mathematical trick and a mathematical true that genealogical CAs exist. However, saying that this reconciles science w. the idea of Adam and Eve, sweeps a lot of stuff under a very patchy, ugly carpet. 5/n

Note that most recent genealogical CA changes over the generations. The genealogical CA of people 2k years ago can be much further back in time than the genealogical CA of everyone alive today. 6/n

This older CA is also an older (not most recent) CA to all modern humans. But there is no uniqueness to this individual, just a chain of many such genealogical ancestors tracing all the way back till eukaryotes started having sex (and further back still).

In a few thousand years someone else will be the most recent genealogical CA of all living individuals. Perhaps it'll be you #LifeGoals, but probably not. ht @jashapiro xkcd.com/1545/

@jashapiro Looking at my mentions following this thread fatherted.gifglobe.com/scene/?id=mR86…

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