Y-chromosomal Adam

Y-chromosomal Adam is the most recent man from whom all living humans inherited their Y chromosomes through unbroken father-to-son lines. He was not necessarily the only man alive in his era or the first human.

Y-chromosome Adam and mitochondrial Eve: The paired population-genetic concepts for the most recent common ancestors of living Y chromosomes and mitochondrial genomes. Their parallel definitions clarify that Adam and Eve need not have lived at the same time.
Human Y-chromosome phylogeny: The branching history of human paternal lineages reconstructed from variation in Y chromosomes. Its deepest branches and mutations underpin estimates of Adam’s ancestry and age.
Mitochondrial Eve: The most recent woman from whom all living humans inherited their mitochondrial DNA through unbroken maternal lines. She traces maternal lineages, while Adam traces paternal ones; their dates need not match.
Patrilineality: A system of tracing descent or inheritance through fathers and their male-line ancestors. Y-chromosomal Adam is the genetic endpoint of a global set of patrilineal lines.
Y-chromosome haplogroup: A branch of paternal lineages defined by shared mutations on the Y chromosome. Shared mutations group living paternal lines into branches that converge on Adam.
African origin of modern humans: The conclusion that anatomically modern humans originated in Africa before dispersing worldwide. The deepest surviving Y-chromosome lineages are found in Africa, consistent with this broader history.
Most recent common ancestor: The latest individual ancestral to every member of a specified group along a defined kind of descent. Adam is a common ancestor only under the specific rule of uninterrupted father-to-son descent.
Human genetic genealogy: The use of DNA variation to investigate biological ancestry and relationships. Y-chromosome tests can place paternal lines within the branching tree leading to Adam.
Single-nucleotide polymorphism: A variation at one DNA position among individuals or populations. Mutations at single DNA positions help reconstruct the branching history of Y chromosomes.
A00 haplogroup: A deeply branching Y-chromosome lineage identified in a man from Cameroon and later found in other central African men. Its discovery pushed estimates of the deepest known paternal lineage farther back.

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