The Khoe-San people of southern Africa have been recognised as one of the earliest-formed distinct human genetic groups for several years now, but new research appears to peg them as the earliest split from the main human family tree so far discovered.
While homo sapiens evolved roughly 200,000 years ago, it appears that the Khoe-San people branched off and went their separate way around 100,000 years ago, according to research in the journal Science. That divergence, reports Live Science, comes far earlier than the human migration out of Africa, and also predates the migration into the area of other early human branches such as the Bantu or Pygmies who now live in the surrounding regions.
View the original article here: Khoe-San people represent earliest branch off human family tree
