London: In a major breakthrough on Human Evolution, scientists in the United States and Switzerland have announced that all modern humans are descended from a common father and mother who appeared on the scene 100,000 to 200,000 years ago after a cataclysmic event almost wiped out the human race.
Scientists surveyed the genetic 'bar codes' of five million animals from 100,000 different species, including humans. From the study, they deduced that we have originated from a single pair of adults after a catastrophic event almost wiped out the human race.
Although the researchers believe in an evolutionary explanation and are not pointing to the Quranic, and also the Biblical, Adam and Eve, or even to Noah and his wife, their DNA discovery has stirred a lot of debate, raising fresh doubts over the widely believed Charles Darwin's theory of Human Evolution.
Believing in the Holy Quran, revealed to Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) more than 1450 years ago, Muslims have faith that Allah created the mankind from a male and female - more specifically Adam and Eve. The Bible also has said on the similar lines.
Quran also talks at length about Prophet Noah and the catastrophic flood that wiped out everyone except those, in pairs, aboard his Ark.
The research led by Senior Research Associate Mark Stoeckle and Research Associate David Thaler of the University of Basel, Switzerland and published in the journal Human Evolution also found that 90 percent of all animal species alive today come from parents who all began giving birth around the same time, somewhere around 250,000 years ago.
"This conclusion is very surprising," Thaler admitted, "and I fought against it as hard as I could."
They mined 'big data' insights from the world's fast-growing genetic databases and reviewed a large literature in evolutionary theory, including Darwin, The Daily Mail reported.
"At a time when humans place so much emphasis on individual and group differences, maybe we should spend more time on the ways in which we resemble one another and the rest of the animal kingdom", Dr Stoeckle said.
The conclusions throw up considerable mystery as to why the need for human life to start again was needed such a relatively short time ago, especially since the last known extinction we know of was during the time of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
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