South Africa: Finding Eden

Finding Eden

It’s generally accepted that Homo sapiens originated in Africa more than 200,000 years ago, but scientists haven’t been able to pinpoint the exact origin of our ancestors on the vast continent.

A recent study, however, argues that modern humans originated in the Makgadikgadi salt flats in southern Africa, an area that was once a fertile land where early humans thrived and expanded, Live Science reported.

A team of researchers studied genetic data from more than 1,200 indigenous Africans living in the southern part of the continent today to construct a history of one of the oldest DNA lineages on Earth: a line of mitochondrial DNA called L0.

Mitochondrial DNA, which everyone has but is passed down only by mothers, can remain unchanged for tens of thousands of years, and this allowed the researchers to argue they had pinpointed the origin of the hypothetical “mitochondrial Eve.”

The study posits that mitochondrial Eve and her offspring lived in the once-lush Makgadikgadi from 200,000 to 170,000 years ago, until climate changes encouraged them to branch out.

But the researchers added that while the study might reveal one location for the “Garden of Eden,” they acknowledged that modern humans may have had multiple “homelands” where they originated.

Some critics of the study have made the same point. They note that fossils of modern-looking humans that date back more than 200,000 years have been found in other parts of Africa, including Morocco.

The search for the garden continues.