Today we have no doubt that people of anatomically modern humans arose in Africa. The difficulties are related to the questions of where this happened and how people settled on the Black continent, especially as he is, based on recent discoveries, mated with some other representatives of the genus Homo, and he himself may have been the result of interspecific hybridization.

New genetic research and does showed that it is impossible to determine the specific place of origin of Homo sapiens. At the same time, it failed to allocate the oldest of the human population on the planet and get hints that helped our ancestors to move forward in the evolutionary race.

An international group of researchers decided not to work with complete genomes, and focused on single nucleotide the polymorphism (SNP), which is faster and cheaper. In the end, it was considered 2.3 million SNP 220 Africans.

Studies of mitochondrial DNA previously showed that the speakers of Khoisan languages have the greatest genetic diversity in the world - so, it should be considered the most ancient branch of human genetic tree. And really, this time I managed to establish that this branch of about 100 thousand years.

The next group was allocated only through 50 thousand years. They were centralnotices. They were followed by the inhabitants of East Africa and widely diversified residents of the Western part of the continent. Date of occurrence of centralnoticias approximately corresponds to the migration of people to other continents, but it is too early to speak about that one (namely migration with the need to adapt to new environmental conditions and the occurrence of relevant genes) has influenced other (that is, has led to the emergence of a new human "strain").

On the one hand, more or less clear salience various African populations suggests that they practically do not share their genetic material. But at the same time there is evidence of impurities, i.e. sudden imposition of material previously isolated populations - for example, in the dissemination of agricultural technology, media, which were primarily the Bantu.

The result is very difficult to determine where did man come from, and most importantly - how: whether through the exchange of genetic material between different groups, whether in the course of evolution, one geographically isolated group.

But the researchers were able to trace, what advantages possessed by our ancestors through the usual natural selection. It's not only the development of the brain. Speakers of Khoisan languages is superior to all other populations on the prevalence of genetic variants associated with high performance and muscle growth. Three other gene involved in the formation of bone and cartilage. Another has to do with the immune system.

Of course, the brain does not stood aside: two of the five strongest genes associated with nerve problems (microcephaly and Alzheimer's), i.e. their initial role was in the regulation of brain functions.

It is possible that the story of our origins will show only the complete sequencing of the genomes of African populations. But hard structuring of the local population indicates that to decipher the exact chain of events will be very difficult. Maybe talk about common origin of mankind simply do not make sense.

The study is published in the journal Science.

Prepared according to Ars Technica.