CHROMOSOME STUDY STUNS EVOLUTIONISTS

By Hugh Ross, Ph.D.

A new study by evolutionary biologists Robert Dorit (Yale), Hiroshi Akashi (University of Chicago), and Walter Gilbert (Harvard) flies in the face of prevailing origin-of-man scenarios. l-2 In an attempt to trace the ancestry of humans, these researchers looked for genetic differences in the Y chromosome of 38 men living in different parts of the world and having different ethnic backgrounds. Since only males possess the Y chromosome, such a study offers a narrowly focused look at genetic material as it has developed over time and distance.

Several years ago, I reported on a parallel investigation of women's genetic variation.3 Because the differences found were so slight, theorists concluded that women can trace their lineage only a couple hundred thousand years at the most to a common ancestor, whom the scientists called "Eve" (I won't argue the name, but I would lean toward a more recent date of origin than 200,000 years).

To their great surprise, Dorit and his associates found no nucleotide differences at all in the non-recombinant part of the Y chromosomes of the 38 men. This non-variation suggests no evolution has occurred in male ancestry. The researchers, apparently committed to Darwinism, back-pedaled by doing statistical analysis on the evolutionary possibilities if the 38 men sampled somehow inaccurately represented the population at large. Based on this analysis, they concluded that men’s forefather – a single individual, not a group – lived no more than 270,00 years ago.

The challenge this study presents to Darwinism is profound. The study of women offered a shred of support for micro-evolution. The Y chromosome research lends no support for micro-evolution. As for macro-evolution, the results of both studies rule out homo erectus (0.5 to 1.5 million years ago) as a possible progenitor of modern humans.4

When the Y chromosome of modern humans is compared with that of modern chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans, another great challenge arises. Large species-to-species genetic variations occur, but within each species very little, if any, variation is found. According to the Darwinist model, the common ancestor of modern primates dates back only seven to twenty million years. If this model were accurate, we would expect to find either less genetic diversity among the species or more variation within each species.

What response do Darwinian biologists make to these findings? Those who have commented point out that the Y chromosome and mitochodrial DNA comprise but a fraction of the total genetic material in primates. They express hope that future studies of the genetic code will bridge the credibility gap by finding less variation among species and greater variation within species.5

I have a different hope and expectation. It seems more likely that future research will continue to confirm only slight variations in the genetic material of humans. If this is the case, we should see biologists' date for "Adam and Eve" drop from a maximum of about 200,000 years ago to a date within the biblical range of about 10,000 to 60,000 years ago.

REFERENCES:

  1. Robert L. Dorit, Hiroshi Akashi and Walter Gilbert, "Absence of Polymorphism at the ZFY Locus on the Human Y Chromosome," Science, 268(1995), pp. 1183-1185.
  2. Svante Paabo, "The Y Chromosome and the Origin of A11 of Us (Men)," Science, 268 (1995), pp. 1141-1142.
  3. Hugh Ross, "The Mother of Mankind," Facts & Faith, vol. 2, no. 1 (1988), pp. 1-2.
  4. Hugh Ross, "New Twists in Theories of Human Evolution," Facts & Faith, vol. 8, no. 2 (1994), pp. 45. 5. Pååbo, p. 1142.

This article originally appeared in Facts & Faith, vol. 9, no. 3 (1995), p. 3.

SEARCHING FOR ADAM UPDATE

By Hugh Ross, Ph.D.

As Y chromosome studies continue, researchers give a new perspective to the word "modern" in modern man. The Y chromosome research on which I reported a few months ago fixed the date of the first male Homo sapiens at 270,000 years ago or less.1 More recent studies have shrunk that number significantly and are revealing how much less it may be.

Making the same assumption as the previous researchers did, specifically that any divergence in Y chromosomes found among men alive today must have arisen through natural evolutionary processes, American molecular biologist Michael Hammer examined 2,600 nucleotide base pair segments of the chromosome in 16 ethnically distinct men. His calculations suggested that the 16 descended from one man living between 51,000 to 411,000 years ago.2 A British team composed of geneticists Simon Whitfield, John Sulston, and Peter Goodfellow examined a much larger segment of the human Y chromosome, a segment comprised of 100,000 nucleotide base pairs, in 5 ethnically distinct men. The divergence they observed was so small as to shrink that date projection to somewhere between 37,000 and 49,000 years ago.3 This newest date for man's progenitor has come within the range of biblically determined dates for Adam. If the Genesis geneologies are anywhere from 10 to 80 percent complete, as most conservative scholars suggest, the Adam of Eden lived between 7,500 and 60,000 years ago.

What is more, the paper by Whitfield, Sulston, and Goodfellow explains how the integration of their Y chromosome data with a variety of other data on such factors as bone morphology and geographic distribution, among others, shows that Homo sapiens could not have evolved by natural processes from Homo erectus.

REFERENCES:
  1. Hugh Ross, "Chromosome Study Stuns Evolutionists," Facts & Faith, volume 9, number 3 (1995), p. 2.
  2. Michael F. Hammer, "A Recent Common Ancestry for Human Y Chromosomes," Nature, 378 (1995), pp. 376-378.
  3. L. Simon Whitfield, John E. Sulston, and Peter N. Goodfellow, "Sequence Variation of the Human Y Chromosome," Nature 378 (1995), pp. 379-380.

This article originally appeared in Facts & Faith, vol. 10, no. 1 (1996), p. 4.