Watch the video above and talk about it with a group or mentor. Learn more.

Learn how DNA reveals our common ancestry.

Key Points:

  • Every human shares a common ancestor. This ancestor lived about 3,000 years ago. Unfortunately, we do not know who this ancestor is.
  • Genes are the fingerprint of our ancestors.
  • We have a forty-seventh chromosome that has passed on unbroken or shuffled to today. It lives in the mitochondria and has been passed on unchanged coming from one woman about 150,000 years ago.

Quote This:

I was born by myself but carry the spirit and blood of my father, mother and my ancestors. So I am really never alone. My identity is through that line. -Ziggy Marley

Talk About It
  1. What is your initial reaction to this topic? What jumped out at you?
  2. What does it mean that our species, homo sapiens, is a “new species”?
  3. How easy is to accept that, despite obvious and sometimes dramatic physical traits, all humans are remarkably similar?
  4. What impact did a smaller original population have in passing on DNA among our species?
  5. Write a personal action step based on this conversation.

This topic is adapted from the It’s Okay To Be Smart YouTube channel.