News tagged with ancestors
Change in developmental timing was crucial in the evolutionary shift from dinosaurs to birds: study
At first glance, it's hard to see how a common house sparrow and a Tyrannosaurus Rex might have anything in common. After all, one is a bird that weighs less than an ounce, and the other is a dinosaur that ...
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
May 27, 2012 |
5 / 5 (12) |
1
|
The living fossils of brain evolution
(Phys.org) -- In the course of its evolution, the architecture of the mouse brain may have barely changed. Similar to the tiny ancestors of modern mammals that lived about 80 million years ago, nerve cells ...
May 23, 2012 |
5 / 5 (2) |
0
|
Today's environment influences behavior generations later: research
Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and Washington State University have seen an increased reaction to stress in animals whose ancestors were exposed to an environmental compound generations earlier. The findings, ...
May 21, 2012 |
4.4 / 5 (5) |
2
|
Rock analysis suggests France cave art is 'oldest'
Experts have long debated whether the sophisticated animal drawings in a famous French cave are indeed the oldest of their kind in the world, and a study out Monday suggests that yes, they are.
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
May 07, 2012 |
4.8 / 5 (17) |
3
Earth history and evolution
In classical mythology, the cypress tree is associated with death, the underworld and eternity. Indeed, the family to which cypresses belong, is an ancient lineage of conifers, and a new study of their evolution affords a ...
May 03, 2012 |
3.9 / 5 (7) |
1
|
Orangutans harbor ancient primate Alu
Alu elements infiltrated the ancestral primate genome about 65 million years ago. Once gained an Alu element is rarely lost so comparison of Alu between species can be used to map primate evolution and diversity. New research ...
Apr 30, 2012 |
5 / 5 (2) |
0
|
Dirty books reveal secret lives of people living in mediaeval times
(Phys.org) -- They feared illness, were selfish and fell asleep reading late at night, just like us, new research has revealed about our mediaeval ancestors.
Apr 24, 2012 |
5 / 5 (4) |
0
Did climate change shape human evolution?
(Phys.org) -- As human ancestors rose on two feet in Africa and began their migrations across the world, the climate around them got warmer, and colder, wetter and drier. The plants and animals they competed ...
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Apr 24, 2012 |
3.5 / 5 (4) |
17
|
Forensic science used to determine who's who in pre-Columbian Peru
Analysis of ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has been used to establish migration and population patterns for American indigenous cultures during the time before Christopher Columbus sailed to the Americas. ...
Apr 23, 2012 |
3 / 5 (1) |
0
|
Great Unconformity: Evidence for a geologic trigger of the Cambrian explosion
(Phys.org) -- The oceans teemed with life 600 million years ago, but the simple, soft-bodied creatures would have been hardly recognizable as the ancestors of nearly all animals on Earth today.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Apr 18, 2012 |
4.8 / 5 (19) |
2
|
New study traces the evolutionary history of what mammals eat
The feeding habits of mammals haven't always been what they are today, particularly for omnivores, finds a new study.
Apr 16, 2012 |
4.8 / 5 (5) |
2
|
Chimpanzee ground nests offer new insight into our ancestors descent from the trees
The first study into rarely documented ground-nest building by wild chimpanzees offers new clues about the ancient transition of early hominins from sleeping in trees to sleeping on the ground. While most ...
Apr 16, 2012 |
3.4 / 5 (8) |
2
|
Lake researchers find fishermen a good resource for limnology
(Phys.org) -- By studying lakes and streams, limnologists are able to learn how water systems work which is vital in a world where human population increases cause such resources to become ever more valuable. ...
Apr 10, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
|
Plants mimic scent of pollinating beetles
The color and scent of flowers and their perception by pollinator insects are believed to have evolved in the course of mutual adaptation. However, an evolutionary biologist from the University of Zurich has ...
Apr 03, 2012 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
|
Human ancestors used fire one million years ago, archaeologist find
An international team led by the University of Toronto and Hebrew University has identified the earliest known evidence of the use of fire by human ancestors. Microscopic traces of wood ash, alongside animal ...
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Apr 02, 2012 |
4.8 / 5 (43) |
2
|
Ancestor
An ancestor is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an ancestor (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent, and so forth).
Two individuals have a genetic relationship if one is the ancestor of the other, or if they share a common ancestor. In evolutionary theory, species which share an evolutionary ancestor are said to be of common descent. However, this concept of ancestry does not apply to some bacteria and other organisms capable of horizontal gene transfer.
Assuming that all of an individual's ancestors are otherwise unrelated to each other, that individual has 2n ancestors in the nth generation before him and a total of about 2g+1 ancestors in the g generations before him. In practice, however, it is clear that the vast majority of ancestors of humans (and indeed any other species) are multiply related (see Pedigree collapse). Consider n = 40: the human species is more than 40 generations old, yet the number 240, approximately 1012 or one trillion, dwarfs the number of humans that have ever lived.
Ignoring the possibility of other inter-relationships (even distant ones) among ancestors, an individual has a total of 2046 ancestors up to the 10th generation, 1024 of which are 10th generation ancestors. With the same assumption, any given person has over a billion 30th generation ancestors (who lived roughly 1000 years ago) and this theoretical number increases past the estimated total population of the world in around AD 1000. (All of these ancestors will have contributed to one's autosomal DNA is concerned: this excludes Y-chromosomal DNA and mitochondrial DNA.)
Some cultures confer reverence to ancestors, both living and dead; in contrast, some more youth-oriented cultural contexts display less veneration of elders. In other cultural contexts, some people seek providence from their deceased ancestors; this practice is sometimes known as ancestor worship or, more accurately, ancestor veneration.
For more information about Ancestor, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
