Grandpa of everyone in UK: DNA links man to Eve


LONDON: A retired lecturer who took a DNA test to find out where his ancestors came from has been found to be directly descended from the first woman on earth, Eve, who lived 190,000 years ago.

The test revealed that Ian Kinnaird has a genetic marker inherited from his mother that traces his ancestry to an African lineage that has not been found before in Western Europe. Researchers from Britain's DNA, who carried out the tests, said the result meant that in genetic terms he was a "thoroughbred" , and could be described as the "grandson of Eve, or the grandfather of everyone in Britain" .

They were so surprised by the results that they phoned the 72-year-old , a widower who lives in Scotland, to break the news to him. They said his mitochondrial DNA passed through the female line, was 30,000 years old and only two genetic mutations removed from the first woman, while most men have a genome with around 200 mutations since the earliest humans.

"It is an result and means he could have been in the 'Garden of Eden' ," the Telegraph quoted Alistair Moffat, the historian and rector of St Andrews University, as saying.

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