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Human generation times across the past 250,000 years.

ABSTRACT: The generation times of our recent ancestors can tell us about both the biology and social organization of prehistoric humans, placing human evolution on an absolute time scale. We present a method for predicting historical male and female generation times based on changes in the mutation spectrum. Our analyses of whole-genome data reveal an average generation time of 26.9 years across the past 250,000 years, with fathers consistently older (30.7 years) than mothers (23.2 years). Shifts in sex-averaged generation times have been driven primarily by changes to the age of paternity, although we report a substantial increase in female generation times in the recent past. We also find a large difference in generation times among populations, reaching back to a time when all humans occupied Africa.

SUBMITTER: Wang RJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9821931 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Human generation times across the past 250,000 years.

Wang Richard J RJ Al-Saffar Samer I SI Rogers Jeffrey J Hahn Matthew W MW

Science advances 20230106 1

The generation times of our recent ancestors can tell us about both the biology and social organization of prehistoric humans, placing human evolution on an absolute time scale. We present a method for predicting historical male and female generation times based on changes in the mutation spectrum. Our analyses of whole-genome data reveal an average generation time of 26.9 years across the past 250,000 years, with fathers consistently older (30.7 years) than mothers (23.2 years). Shifts in sex-a ...[more]

PMID: 36608127

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