[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":145},["ShallowReactive",2],{"article-most-recent-common-ancestor-of-modern-humans-en":3},{"id":4,"name":5,"keywords":4,"slug":6,"author":7,"status":4,"defaultLang":4,"ogImage":8,"ogType":9,"updateDate":10,"createDate":11,"isDeleted":4,"availableLangs":4,"i18nMeta":12,"relatedBlogs":23},null,"现代人的最近共同祖先","most-recent-common-ancestor-of-modern-humans","卜可","https://image.big-history.online/tree_24.40/1770276783618_720_1761530294216_The-origin-of-humans32.jpg","article","2026-02-05T15:33:11","2025-10-24T21:32:09",{"name":13,"h1Title":14,"title":15,"subtitle":4,"keywords":16,"content":17,"overview":4,"description":18,"ogTitle":19,"ogDescription":20,"preface":4,"note":4,"langCode":21,"updateDate":10,"createDate":11,"priority":22,"author":7},"The MRCA of modern humans","The most recent common ancestor of modern humans","The Most Recent Common Ancestor of Modern Humans | MRCA, Genealogical Common Ancestors, and Evolutionary Origins","modernhuman,recentcommonancestor,MRCA,originofhuman","## The closest common ancestor of all modern humans on the human family tree\n\nThe common ancestor here refers to the recent common ancestor**traced upward from the modern human genealogy. Unlike Mitochondrial Eve or Y-chromosome Adam, the probability of each of us inheriting even a small gene from this co-ancestor approaches zero.\n\nA core point of Darwin's theory of evolution is that all living things on earth have a common ancestor, and all kinds of living things are gradually evolved from primitive life, and there is a kinship between them, just like different branches of a big tree, which reflects the unity of the biological world.\n\nHuman beings, as a member of the biological, also follow this rule.\n\nSpecifically: as long as the backtracking time is long enough, any two people must have a common ancestor-this ancestor is a real individual, known as the most recent common Ancestor (Most Recent Common Ancestor,MRCA).\n\nThe most understandable example is siblings from the same family, where the parents are the most recent common ancestor of all the children; obviously, the parents' ancestors are also the ancestors of the children, but not the \"most recent\" generation. In addition, the number of theories of our ancestors increases exponentially: everyone has a pair of parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents ......, and the number of theories of grandparents doubles with each upward tracing generation;\n\nAccording to this calculation, the theoretical number of each person's 10th generation ancestors should be 2 \u003Csup>10\u003C/sup>, that is, 1024 people. By the 40th generation, the theoretical number of ancestors could reach 2 \u003Csup>40\u003C/sup> =1,099,511,627,776, more than 1 trillion.\n\nIf estimated at 25 years per generation, the ancestral 40 generations of people, they lived only about 1000 years ago. And population history studies show that 1,000 years ago the world's total population did not exceed 0.3 billion.\n\nCould there have been 1 trillion people in the world a thousand years ago.\n\nTherefore,**there must be a lot of overlap in the ancestral lineage of each of us, that is, co-ancestor**.\n\nIt is not complicated to accurately prove that any two people, such as Zhang San and Li Si, have a common ancestor. We can trace the time back to 0.1 billion years ago, when human ancestors roughly resembled insect-eating or small marsupials. In that ancient time, there must have been some ancestor of Zhang San, who lived in some corner of the earth; this need not be proved, because it is an observational fact-otherwise Zhang San would not have existed 0.1 billion years later.\n\nNow we have to prove: * * this ancient ancestor of Zhang San must also be the ancestor of Li si * *. This is a non-\"yes\" or \"no\" question, there is no intermediate state.\n\nWe use the method of disproof to assume that Zhang San's ancestor is not Li si's ancestor, which also means that Zhang San's family and Li si's family have lived together in this world since 0.1 billion years ago. However, in the following 0.1 billion years, the two families have never been mixed (that is, there has been no gene exchange). Moreover, until the era when Zhang San and Li si appeared, they still belonged to the same species, there is no reproductive isolation from each other.\n\nIn other words, in the era before primate species appeared, the families of Zhang San and Li si (they were shrews or possums) began to evolve independently. Finally, 0.1 billion years later, their families have evolved from the shape of \"shrew-like or possum\" and through two mutually exclusive independent paths to modern people with the same sex chromosomes, and can intermarry. Obviously, this is an absurd conclusion, which can only exist between the handsome earthlings and alien beauties in Hollywood blockbusters. Therefore, the initial assumption does not hold. Therefore, this ancient ancestor of Zhang San must also be the ancestor of Li Si. Of course, it must also be the common ancestor of all modern people.\n\nFurther, we will come to an even more amazing conclusion: for a sexually reproducing species like human beings, * * as long as we go back far enough * *, then the ancestral relationship finally found must be \"all\" or \"none\", that is, an ancient individual * * is either the common ancestor of all living descendants or has no direct descendant relationship with anyone * *.\n\nContinued deduction: at some point in history, there must have been two different individuals of the same species, one of which became the ancestor of all later humans, without any wombat among their descendants, and the other of which became the ancestor of all later wombat bears, without any human beings among their descendants.\n\nIf we go back a small step further, then there must still be such a scene: * * two offspring born to the same mother, one is the ancestor of all later human beings, and the other is the ancestor of all wombats * *.\n\n**These seemingly incredible assertions are not just possibilities, they are basic facts. Although not particularly easy to understand**.\n\nWe could even replace \"humans and wombats\" here with any two modern species: tigers and dandelions, or corals and butterflies, and the same conclusion still holds true**.\n\nTherefore, the so-called \"dragon gives birth to nine sons\" is not a lie. Of course, this ancient \"dragon\" did not have any special features at that time. It was as common as other life individuals of the same era, and it was not \"magical\" at all \". Just standing today looking back, it's just \"better luck\" some of it. This can be attributed to \"survivor deviation\": its unremarkable instant life, after hundreds of millions of years of time and space background, suddenly \"collapsed\" into a miracle today!\n\nThe above description and explanation of the common ancestors of the pedigree mainly comes from the story of the ancestors. One of the authors is the famous Richard Dawkins, whose more famous work is the selfish gene.\n\nIf we can understand this logic, and the author of this paper, Bucco's description is correct, then we will reach a grand conclusion: * * Any two living organisms have a certain \"recent common ancestor\" (MRCA). And any two organisms that have existed, whether sexual or not, can eventually be traced back to the \"singularity moment\" of life-that is, about 3.8 billion years ago, the birth of the first set of genetic mechanisms**.\n\nOf course,**this conclusion is based on the assumption that life only needs to be born once**.\n\n\u003Cdiv class=\"img-container-article\">\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://image.big-history.online/tree_24.25.27/1761530294216_The-origin-of-humans32.jpg\" alt=\"人类家系图的程式化表达\" width=\"80%\"/>\n\u003Cspan>\nThe Story of Ancestors [English] Richard Dawkins [English] Huang Keren; Xu Shiming [translated] Guo Yunbo [translated]; CITIC Publishing Group Publishing 2019-07\n\u003C/span>\n\u003Cp class=\"description\">This diagram is a stylized representation of the human family diagram, it is not accurate, because the real family diagram is so dense that it cannot be presented. The gray line in the figure represents the mixed blood route. Mixed blood is more frequent within the same continent, and there are occasional exchanges between the continents. The circles marked with numbers represent the number 0 co-ancestor, the most recent common ancestor of all living humans. You can verify it yourself: starting from the 0th co-ancestor to the right, you can reach any modern person who serves as a \"temporary\" end.\u003C/p>\n\u003C/div>\n\nWe go back to all extant modern humans: since any two people must have a common ancestor, then any three, and indeed all people in the world, must also come from the same identified recent common ancestor.\n\nObserving the conclusion in the above figure, the most recent common ancestor of all living humans, the \"Co-ancestor 0\", lived about 10000 years ago; this result comes mainly from mathematical and computer simulations, without strictly considering the differentiation effects of long-term geographical isolation.\n\nAccording to the inference of the authors of \"The Story of Ancestors\", it is estimated in this way that the most recent common ancestor of all living humans lived only a few thousand years ago, at most tens of thousands of years, and no longer. Up. Big History Online defines it tentatively as 30000 years; it's a very short period of time, but it's close to \"eternity\" compared to our short lives \".\n\nWe are all one family, and from a broad evolutionary and genealogical perspective, it is......\n\nFinally, the author of this article is stupid and cannot guarantee the accuracy of the discussion process in this article. If there are any mistakes, please see the professionals correct them. Thank you!\n\n\u003Cbr>\n\n## References\n\n\n\n《祖先的故事》[英]理查德·道金斯 [英]黄可仁；许师明[译] 郭运波[译]；中信出版集团出版 2019-07\n\n《人类起源的故事 : 我们是谁，我们从哪里来》 大卫·赖克；叶凯雄 胡正飞[译]；浙江人民出版社 2019-06\n\n\u003Cbr>\n\n\u003Ca href=\"https://isogg.org/wiki/Most_recent_common_ancestor\" target=\"_blank\">Most recent common ancestor\u003C/a>\n\n\u003Ca href=\"https://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/basics/inheritance\" target=\"_blank\">What is Inheritance?\u003C/a>\n\n\u003Ca href=\"https://isogg.org/wiki/Identical_ancestors_point#cite_note-4\" target=\"_blank\">Identical ancestors point\u003C/a>\n\n\u003Ca href=\"https://everything.explained.today/Identical_ancestors_point\" target=\"_blank\">Identical ancestors point explained\u003C/a>\n\n\u003Ca href=\"\" target=\"_blank\">\u003C/a>\n\n\u003Cbr>\n\n---\n","What is the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of modern humans? How is it different from Mitochondrial Eve and Y-chromosome Adam? This article uses popular logic to explain the mystery of the common ancestor of all mankind.","In fact, all of us descend from the same most recent common ancestor.","Why do any two people have to have a common ancestor? The most recent common ancestor of all mankind lived only tens of thousands of years ago, or even more recently.","en",0.7,[24,32,40,48,56,63,71,78,86,93,100,108,116,124,131,138],{"id":25,"name":26,"keywords":4,"slug":27,"author":7,"ogImage":28,"isBlog":4,"createDate":29,"updateDate":30,"description":31},"650fb920a825478aba09b4410abf55ab","Recent common ancestor based on chromosomes 1-22","most-recent-common-ancestor-chromosome","https://image.big-history.online/tree_24.40/1770276375616_720_1761526548499_Chromosomal-fragment-recombination.jpg","2026-02-26T22:20:53","2026-02-26T22:21:27","Interpreting the recent common ancestor of human autosomes 1-22 from a genomic perspective, explaining DNA recombination, mutation and ancestral fragment inheritance, and popularizing the common ancestor time in the sense of human genetics.",{"id":33,"name":34,"keywords":4,"slug":35,"author":7,"ogImage":36,"isBlog":4,"createDate":37,"updateDate":38,"description":39},"f94253e20113427385837238315d21c8","Modern man in the sense of anatomy","anatomically-modern-humans","https://image.big-history.online/tree_24.40/1770276414249_720_1762690305711_Anatomically-modern-humans.jpg","2026-02-26T22:41:52","2026-02-26T22:43:27","What is modern man in the sense of anatomy? This paper systematically introduces the origin and characteristics of late Homo sapiens from the definition, key fossils (Jebel Iro, Omo, Herto), age and evolutionary diffusion.\n",{"id":41,"name":42,"keywords":4,"slug":43,"author":7,"ogImage":44,"isBlog":4,"createDate":45,"updateDate":46,"description":47},"8f6adef1f3eb4d62ad48ffd2897d9ba0","Y chromosome Adam","y-chromosomal-adam","https://image.big-history.online/tree_24.40/1770276518548_720_1763566058169_y-chromosomal-adam.jpg","2026-02-27T00:04:54","2026-03-04T22:24:49","What is Y chromosome Adam? This article explains the paternal inheritance of Y chromosome, molecular clock age, African origin of 120000 year, and the difference between it and mitochondrial Eve.",{"id":49,"name":50,"keywords":4,"slug":51,"author":7,"ogImage":52,"isBlog":4,"createDate":53,"updateDate":54,"description":55},"78c2c5b3365e4a22a305d08771815f1c","Genus","homo","https://image.big-history.online/tree_24.40/1770175703118_1764295418266_Homo_ergaster_American_Museum_of_Natural_History.jpg","2024-01-04T09:47:05","2026-03-12T10:23:51","\"Human\" is only a term in the traditional sense, and from a genealogical point of view, it is very imprecise. In a narrow sense, human beings refer to all the people who have existed in history so far. However, human beings in biological taxonomy refer to \"human genus\", or \"true genus\". There are 17 known species, and modern people are only one of them.",{"id":57,"name":58,"keywords":4,"slug":59,"author":7,"ogImage":60,"isBlog":4,"createDate":61,"updateDate":54,"description":62},"23d76e12c94e41c1859cb32f2488d014","The Evolution of Modern Man","divergence-neanderthals-denisovans-homo-sapiens","https://image.big-history.online/tree_24.40/1770276305930_720_000124_1704330139624.jpg","2023-11-23T15:49:40","770000 to 550000 years ago, the ancestors of modern humans diverged from those of Neanderthals and Denisovans, but there was no complete \"reproductive isolation\" between the three subspecies \". In fact, from a genetic point of view, they are just a \"weaker\" ancestor of modern people tens of thousands of years ago. Every modern person has more or less their genes in his body.",{"id":64,"name":65,"keywords":4,"slug":66,"author":7,"ogImage":67,"isBlog":4,"createDate":68,"updateDate":69,"description":70},"15e0df576bbc43d88d2498755e8f8c87","Late Paleolithic Revolution","upper-paleolithic-revolution","https://image.big-history.online/tree_24.40/1770276687125_720_1760335975390_Palm2.jpg","2026-02-25T20:16:43","2026-02-28T16:28:26","About 50000 years ago, our race experienced something very special: just as Athena in Greek mythology injected soul into mankind, mankind suddenly possessed unprecedented figurative artistic creativity. This event, known as the \"Late Paleolithic Revolution\", is a watershed in the history of human evolution.",{"id":72,"name":73,"keywords":4,"slug":74,"author":7,"ogImage":75,"isBlog":4,"createDate":76,"updateDate":54,"description":77},"02dc8cb3fb8a4f41a87671463267f5e8","Denisovans mixed with modern people","hybridization-between-denisovans-and-modern-humans","https://image.big-history.online/tree_24.40/1770276654946_720_000124_1704329927656.jpg","2023-11-24T14:20:52","Denisovans are an ancient human species discovered through DNA analysis. They coexisted with Neanderthals and modern humans and interbred with both. This paper provides a detailed analysis of gene flow, the EPAS1 gene on the Tibetan Plateau, the Xiahe mandible, and the distribution of ancestral components across global populations.\n",{"id":79,"name":80,"keywords":4,"slug":81,"author":7,"ogImage":82,"isBlog":4,"createDate":83,"updateDate":84,"description":85},"37fb4d2375284b3a9b4176a9419a9ced","Orina Culture","aurignacian-culture","https://image.big-history.online/tree_24.40/1770276727955_720_1760411643106_rhinos-chauvet-cave.jpg","2026-02-27T11:05:34","2026-03-04T22:19:11","What is Aorina culture? Age, distribution, tools, murals and sculptures (Chauvius Caves, Lions, Hochler Fellows Venus).",{"id":87,"name":88,"keywords":4,"slug":89,"author":7,"ogImage":90,"isBlog":4,"createDate":91,"updateDate":54,"description":92},"dc3c57ca41ee45f8858842605c3045e6","The Hobbit Extinction","extinction-of-hobbits","https://image.big-history.online/tree_24.40/1770276601930_720_1761974884022_Homo_floresiensis_cave.jpg","2023-11-23T16:27:59","Who were the Flores (Hobbits)? Why were they short? When did they become extinct? This article describes the fossils, evolution and extinction of this mysterious dwarf human.\n",{"id":94,"name":95,"keywords":4,"slug":96,"author":7,"ogImage":97,"isBlog":4,"createDate":98,"updateDate":98,"description":99},"39e78b8f996c4a5e9db08680a5679edb","Neanderthals mixed with modern humans","hybridization-between-neanderthals-and-modern-humans","https://image.big-history.online/tree_24.40/1770276568618_720_1762762802424_hybridization-between-neanderthals-and-modern-humans.jpg","2026-02-27T10:39:43","Are modern people mixed with Neanderthals? How many Neanderthals genes do Europeans, Asians and Africans each contain? This article understands the history of gene exchange and evolution between humans and Neanderthals.\n",{"id":101,"name":102,"keywords":4,"slug":103,"author":7,"ogImage":104,"isBlog":4,"createDate":105,"updateDate":106,"description":107},"f04ff6cc20b3488dacfcbe9207617d3a","The earliest modern humans outside Africa","earliest-modern-humans-outside-africa","https://image.big-history.online/tree_24.40/1770276488308_720_1760335068948_Misliya.jpg","2026-02-26T23:51:57","2026-03-04T22:28:04","Where are the earliest modern fossils outside Africa and how many years ago? This article introduces key sites such as Kafze and Misria, and combs the real timeline of modern people coming out of Africa.\n",{"id":109,"name":110,"keywords":4,"slug":111,"author":7,"ogImage":112,"isBlog":4,"createDate":113,"updateDate":114,"description":115},"44683e95121b4f4c8bb80251e97882d6","The first human out of Africa","first-time-humans-left-africa","https://image.big-history.online/tree_24.40/1770176027541_beijingren2.jpg","2026-02-25T17:38:15","2026-02-26T19:08:56","The ancient fossils unearthed from various places can prove that the expansion of the genus of Man began as early as 2 million years ago. At the latest, 1.8 million years ago, the first time that the man's subordinate, the erectus, came out of Africa. It can be said that this is one of the largest geological and historical events in the history of the earth.",{"id":117,"name":118,"keywords":4,"slug":119,"author":7,"ogImage":120,"isBlog":4,"createDate":121,"updateDate":122,"description":123},"c63210efa56b4a2cb684376254bdc611","The Birth of Mankind","human-origin","https://image.big-history.online/tree_24.40/1770170182584_1760324824811_the-origin-of-our-species2.jpg","2026-02-25T00:25:33","2026-02-26T16:38:25","Human beings used to think that they were very \"advanced\" and different, a special existence created by \"gods\" according to their own image or preferences, but since the era when Darwin published the Origin of species, people's traditional cognition of the origin of life has been subverted. Now we know that the history of mankind is not long, only about 7 million years.",{"id":125,"name":126,"keywords":4,"slug":127,"author":7,"ogImage":128,"isBlog":4,"createDate":129,"updateDate":129,"description":130},"f7684aff24744766b9849f56b04617f2","Longshan Culture","longshan-culture","https://image.big-history.online/tree_24.40/1780474978266_longshan-culture8.jpg","2026-06-05T15:10:49","The Longshan Culture is one of the most important archaeological cultures of the Late Neolithic period in China, dating from approximately 4,500 to 4,000 years ago. This article systematically examines the origins and geographical distribution of the Longshan Culture, its black‑ware pottery techniques, social stratification, the emergence of proto‑writing, prehistoric urban sites, and its relationship with the Erlitou Culture of the Xia Dynasty, thereby illuminating a crucial phase in the formation of Chinese civilization.",{"id":132,"name":133,"keywords":4,"slug":134,"author":7,"ogImage":135,"isBlog":4,"createDate":136,"updateDate":136,"description":137},"a5e600c3d725475595abfd581b704176","Hongshan Culture","hongshan-culture","https://image.big-history.online/tree_24.40/1780389885606_hongshan-culture62.jpg","2026-06-02T20:46:01","Hongshan Culture is one of the most important late Neolithic archaeological cultures in northern China, renowned for the Niuheliang site, the Goddess Temple, the cairn tombs, and its exquisite jade artifacts. This article provides a systematic overview of the Hongshan Culture, covering its chronological framework, geographical distribution, agricultural practices, jade-crafting traditions, and its pivotal significance for research on the origins of Chinese civilization.",{"id":139,"name":140,"keywords":4,"slug":141,"author":7,"ogImage":142,"isBlog":4,"createDate":143,"updateDate":54,"description":144},"47281d4cfe6e440e97e2ca10729e61f6","Homo erectus","homo-eractus","https://image.big-history.online/tree_24.40/1770175824343_000124_1709605257579.jpg","2023-11-23T15:48:07","Homo erectus, which existed about 1.8 million to 200000 years ago, is a critical and successful species in the history of human evolution. Their body proportions are close to those of modern people. They can systematically use fire and make complex tools. They not only created the Acheri culture, but also made human beings walk out of Africa for the first time, which can be called a milestone in the evolution of the human genus.",1780647327376]