The Human Family Tree and Genographic Project
Questions and Answers about Our Ancestors
Aug 16, 2009
First, the Genographic Project, which is the project on which The Human Family Tree is based, traces everyone’s DNA back to one place in Africa. So why are there different distinctions between people in their facial features?
How Did Physical Characteristics Evolve?
Dr. Spencer Wells, director of the Genographic Project, explained to the Television Critics at their Summer Press Tour, “Great question. First, they are really only skin deep. So we all came out of Africa within the last 60,000 years. We are all effectively members of an extended African family, and we've come back together in places like Queens. But over those 60,000 years, we scattered like the wind around the world, and we adapted to the different climates and the places where we lived. So people, as they moved out of the tropics, had to lose some of the pigmentation in their skin that they needed to protect themselves from the sun in the tropics. We actually have to let some UV light through to make Vitamin D. So that's the reason people in Northern Europe have lighter skin. Probably something Darwin called sexual selection, choosing people we mate with on the basis of what we find attractive, that varies according to where you are in the world. That probably played a role as well, probably random events. Small populations moving around, tiny genetic changes get fixed. The short answer is we don't know for sure. We have a few theories, and they are being tested.”
The show on National Geographic Channel explains this in detail. It traces the lineage of the human DNA to one spot in Africa. Dr. Wells explained, “The genetic evidence is that we all came out of Africa very recently. We all trace back to a small African population within the last 60,000 years.”
How to Join the Genographic Project
For people who are interested in finding the exact path their ancestors took throughout the 60,000 years, they can go to the website and order a DNA kit.
As Dr. Wells explains, “For most people who order the kits over the Internet and go onto the website and who find out about the project and so on, it takes about six weeks to get the results back. They are all delivered anonymously. There's a code that goes into each kit. So there's no name attached to it.”
The Human Family Tree premiers Sunday, August 30, at 9 PM PT/ET on National Geographic Channel.
To read more about the show, go to this article about The Human Family Tree.
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