The Two People We're All Related To

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Due to an odd quirk of genetics and some unique evolutionary circumstances, two humans who lived at different times in the distant past managed to pass on a very small fraction of their genomes to you. And to me. To all of us.

Produced for PBS Digital Studios.

Super special thanks to the following Patreon patrons for helping make Eons possible:

Katie Fichtner, Aldo Espinosa Zúñiga, Anthony Callaghan, الخليفي سلطان, Gabriel Cortez, Marcus Lejon, Anel Salas, Robert Arévalo, Robert Hill, Kelby Reid, Todd Dittman, Betsy Radley, Svetlana Pylaeva, Colin Sylvester, Philip Slingerland, John Vanek, Jose Garcia, Noah offitzer, Eric Vonk, Tony Wamsley, Henrik Peteri, Jonathan Wright, Jon Monteiro, James Bording, Brad Nicholls, Miles Chaston, Michael McClellan, Jeff Graham, Maria Humphrey, Nathan Paskett, Connor Jensen, Sapjes, Daisuke Goto, Hubert Rady, Yuntao Zhou, Gregory Kintz, Tyson Cleary, Chandler Bass, Maly Lor, Joao Ascensao. Tsee Lee, Sarah Fritts, Ruben Winter, Ron Harvey Jr, Joshua Mitchell, Johnny Li, Jacob Gerke, Alex Yan

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References:

[berrystein]

No wonder we never truly get along.

We are all siblings

[SP-sldj]

I want to thank every ancestor I ever had, for fighting their battles, surviving hardship, looking after their children and keeping them safe, so that I could be here right now. I’ll never know you, but thank you for everything you did. I’ll do the same for my kid ❤️

[mr.cinematics]

"I don't have friends, I got family."
- Vin Diesel

[tyranta.devillier]

I no longer experience social anxiety knowing I'm just amongst family.

[nyyotam]

So we're all just one, big, dysfunctional family.

[Jmitez]

“You don’t know me!”
Me: “shut up I’m your brother…”

[hera]

Imagine meeting them. The people who bridge all human beings in the modern world together. You would be looking at everyone you ever knew in one person, your greatest grandmother. What would you show her? I would show her everything. All 7000 pics on my phone

[genericguy_]

Hello my cousins, hope u have a great life!!!

[LG-nhbs]

Unknown guy: hit the lottery
Me: Hi Uncle

[witchstetician]

This videos only 9 minutes long but this talented man packed an hours worth of information in a well enunciated and precisely pronounced manner and I am impressed

[SanguiphiliaTV]

Wow, I knew about the mitochondrial DNA passed down from mothers but I didn't realize it was an unbroken line from mother to daughter repeating all the way till now! That's absolutely crazy. I thought it must live in male DNA too but I guess not.

[galemara]

When you realize that a distant cousin died today, ☹️
But a new one is born

[monolithrose]

Aight then, time to call my distant cousin jeff bezo’s for my birthday present

[TB]

Fascinating. Considering that our "common male ancestor" would have had more opportunities, biologically speaking, to pass on his genetic material than our common female ancestor, who perhaps could have had as many as 15 children or so versus the male who may have been that "productive" every year of his adult life, her story is more impressive to me. Thank you for your service, super grandmom.

[a.e.jabbour]

That was really cool. I love these Eons videos. They take really complex ideas and make them understandable, even for people like me! :)

Thanks!

[citadelofwinds]

Well, that blows up the wedding invitations list.

[crimsonilla]

“The two people we’re all related to.”
Ah yes, our parents.

[HWCWTD]

It's a testament to how long we were in Africa that despite how superficially different we all became, there's still more genetic variation within africa today.

[bonniehoke-scedrov]

Great video! Your video was so informative. Thank you so much!

[RenzohsClub]

“How many family members do you have?”
“7 billion and counting.”
“wut....”
*”including