Eric Hovind's Creation Today delves into the science of our common ancestors -- the so-called Adam and Eve -- as traced back through our y-chromosomes and our mitochondrial DNA. Dr. Robert Carter guests to give us an estimate of when they lived... does it line up with the young-earth Biblical creation narrative?

Using gene sequencing, one can begin to trace backwards to common male ancestors of populations and back far enough to an individual known as the “Y-chromosomal most recent common ancestor”. This individual is also informally called “Y-chromosomal Adam”, invoking the idea of the character Adam from the Bible, but that colloquialism leads to some unfortunate misconceptions.

An interesting feature of mitochondria is that is has its own DNA, which is entirely separate from the DNA in the nucleus of cell. While that nuclear DNA is a combination of the mother and father, the mitochondrial DNA comes exclusively from the mother. Since there is no blending of mitochondrial DNA, any variations from mother to child can come from only one source – genetic mutations. As such, it’s possible to track the matrilineal most common ancestor. Just like Y- chromosomal Adam, mitochondrial Eve would be the most recent common female ancestor, and would have been one of a larger population.

Creation Today Season 5 Episode 6 - 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcuMIATlHGE

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