• Question: Is everyone in the world somehow related?

    Asked by chelss to Ed, Katie, Sam, Steve, Vera on 18 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Vera Weisbecker

      Vera Weisbecker answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Yes, definitely. We are all descendants from a relatively small group of people, who were also all related, and who probably lived in Africa a bit more than 2 million years ago. By that time span, you can see that we are only very distantly related of course!

    • Photo: Ed Morrison

      Ed Morrison answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Yes, humans are all related to each other. You don’t even have to go back that far to see this. If you trace back your grand-parents to your great-grandparents to your great-great grandparents etc., then by the time you get the the Middle Ages, most people in europe share the same ancestors. So most europeans are not-so-distant cousins!

    • Photo: Katie Marriott

      Katie Marriott answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Wow I didn’t know that you didn’t have to go back too far into history! Fascinating!

    • Photo: Sam Tazzyman

      Sam Tazzyman answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      All people who have ever lived are descended from the first people who lived somewhere in east Africa. I think this is a wonderful fact!

    • Photo: Steven Daly

      Steven Daly answered on 18 Jun 2011:

      If you take this to the extreme, we could claim relation to every living thing on the Earth, since we all likely evolved from a single common ancestor!

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