Eve And Steve.

Not what you think this is about, either.
A few years ago, the paleoanthropologists got together with molecular geneticists and made a startling discovery – that all modern humans descend from a common female ancestor, who originated in Africa. They named her “Eve”, which, while not entirely original, was clever and easy to remember. (Though I wish I were a fly on the wall when the wailing began that the choice of this particular name might dovetail a little too conveniently with the competing theory in Genesis – but I digress…)
The discovery was based upon studies of mitochondrial dna – located outside the cell nucleus and inherited only from one’s mother. A more thorough discussion of mitochondrial dna and how it is used to track evolutionary branches is here. (Heh – check it out. I’m such a mind reader.)
Once the genetics geeks got their hands on mitochondrial dna they were hooked. In addition to finding “Eve”, they went to work on a timeline showing when dogs emerged from wolves, and wolves from older versions of wolves and so forth. They’ve been using it to plot these evolutionary timelines for species divergence, crime solving, disease research ever since. It’s a slick little tool.
Or it would be, if that part about “only inherited from the maternal ancestor line” were true.
Oops.

For decades biologists have assumed that mitochondria – the cells’ power stations – are inherited solely through the maternal line.
Mitochondria in the sperm from the father were presumed to be destroyed immediately after conception, leaving behind only those from the mother. But Marianne Schwartz and John Vissing from the University Hospital Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, have discovered that one of their patients inherited the majority of his mitochondria from his father.
[…]
The researchers think inheritance of paternal mitochondrial DNA is probably very rare. But the findings will have implications for a number of branches of biology. Evolutionary biologists often date the divergence of species by the differences in genetic sequences in mitochondrial DNA. Even if paternal DNA is inherited very rarely, it could invalidate many of their findings. It will also have implications for scientists investigating inherited metabolic diseases.

Damn. Well, that sucks, doesn’t it?
But let’s not let that get anyone down.. regroup, refocus and charge!

Using a computer model, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology attempted to trace back the most recent common ancestor using estimated patterns of migration throughout history.
They calculated that the ancestor’s location in eastern Asia allowed his or her descendants to spread to Europe, Asia, remote Pacific Islands and the Americas. Going back a few thousand years more, the researchers found a time when a large fraction of people in the world were the common ancestors of everybody alive today – while the rest were ancestors of no one alive. That date was 5,353BC, the team reports in Nature.

No word on whether or not they’ve named the lucky dude, but I’m guessing “Adam” is high on the list.