Even though I do not know what the good professor found, I very much doubt this out of Africa theory. Much of this idea is based on tracing the pattern of inheritance of mitochondrial DNA, which leads to the so-called mitochondrial Eve. But she was not the only woman of her time, descendants of the other women did not survive till our times. It is a complex subject, and one that can potentially be interpreted in multiple ways.
RE:Dont believe it yet
by saigeetha jagannathan on Apr 30, 2008 09:51 AM Permalink
No Dhruba, It is also based on the geological occurances in the past. During triassic period, all the continents were together called Pangea. Then they broke due to continental drift and slowly moved away from each other. Even India was connected with australia, africa, south america and antartica down south. Then it started moving towards north for nearly 6000 kms and collided with Eurasian plate. This historic collision gave rise to the Himalays. Infact, Himalayas is the youngest mountain range in the world and was formed only at the end of dinosaur's era. The discovery of ocean floor and sea fossils in Himalayas provide ample evidences for that. So this african theory have proofs in geology too.
You mean to say that when the continents divided, and the earth was in terrible upheaval, and yet the African descent people survived in India? Imagine this.. the earth had gone soft and the atmosphere superhot, so that the Indian land could float off to collide with China and form the Himalayas? You want me to believe that people survived that 1000 degree heat and land movement? I have no problem with that geology, but I cannot believe this out of Africa theory. Sorry.
RE:Dont believe it yet
by saigeetha jagannathan on May 01, 2008 11:30 AM Permalink
Hi Dhruba, All this happenned not in a single day but thousands of years. The continents shifted not due to earth going soft or heating up of atmosphere, it is primarily due to continental drift and this is happenning even now to all the continents in the world. India is moving in the northest direction at a velocity of ~5 cm per year thrusting Himalayas and thatswhy Himalays is continuously rising. Coming to the connections of continents, africa, India and Australia slowly moved northwards splitting from Antartica and the subsequently got splitted themselves. But even today the boundary between Indian and Australian plates is not well defined and hence speculated to be on one plate namely Indo-Australian plate. The land mass between India and Australia would have got submerged gradually. But few hundreds of thousands years back, there was a huge landmass between these continents and gradully got sunken in the ocesn. Even the previouslye existed sea was Tethys sea and not Indian Ocean. With this I want to point out that the changes in continents are happenning due to continental drift(non stop process-a secret of earth's life unlike other planets) and not due to overheating of earth or atmosphere.
RE:Dont believe it yet
by saigeetha jagannathan on May 01, 2008 11:37 AM Permalink
Hi Dhruba, The theory that I have explained in the previous post is the basis of the field of geophysics and if you still doubts in it, you can check this site from United States Geological Survey(USGS). pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/dynamic.html I am a geophysical researcher who is working on a subject based on Continental drift and Plate tectonics.
RE:RE:Dont believe it yet
by saigeetha jagannathan on May 01, 2008 11:48 AM Permalink
This landmass that got submerged gradully in the present day Indian ocean would have been the connecting land between africa, India and Australia.
Its fascinating to see such a landmass has been described in ancient Tamil literature as Kumarikandam or Lemuria continent by historians. Some sangam literature points out that there existed land below kanyakumari and the capital of ancinet pandyas denoted as Old Madurai existed there. This is where the first sangam of Tamil literature is said to have taken place under Lord Shiva himself. Geologically, India shrinked by around 2000 kms before reaching this size. The northern part of older India got shrunken and thrusted as Himalayas. The present northern India was the southern part of the India existed before. The sangam texts also point out this landmass got submerged forcing people to move northwards. Call you see the link?
