degreed writes:
The point rests in that Nature article in my previous post. If the Y chromosome study reported in this article puts Sapiens origins at no more than 50,000 years ago, then we reeeeally need to find an ancestor who was turning into Sapiens at just about that time.
First, it's difficult to have a meaningful discussion about an article only you have access to.
Second, you've misunderstood the study. The 50,000 year date for Y-chromosome Adam is not for the origin of Homo sapiens, but for the most recent common ancestor of all male Homo sapiens alive today. There is also a Mitochondrial Eve, the most recent common ancestor of all female Homo sapiens alive today, thought to have lived around 140,000 years ago.
The date of the most recent common ancestor is unrelated to the date of emergence of a new species. The age of Y-chromosome Adam is not the same as the age of the Homo sapien species. And neither is the age of Mitochondrial Eve, obviously not since she has a widely divergent date from Y-chromosome Adam. It would be impossible for females to have become Homo sapiens before males, though I grant it makes lots of sense from other perspectives.
--Percy