Mark Stoeckle and David Thaler publish “Why should mitochondria define species?” open-access (DOI: 10.14673/HE2018121037) in the journal Human Evolution following a study of mitochondrial DNA from about 5 million specimens covering about 100,000 animal species. The paper argues that humans are far from special: humanity’s tiny mt DNA differences are “average” in the animal kingdom. Moreover, as with humans, over 90% of animal species today likely originated 100,000–200,000 years ago.
RealClearScience runs a good article about Stoeckle-Thaler, “What Can ‘DNA Barcodes’ Tell Us About Evolution and Ourselves?”
The study is grounded in and strongly supports Darwinian evolution, including the understanding all life has evolved from a common biological origin over several billion years.
The study follows mainstream views of human evolution. We do not propose there was a single “Adam” or “Eve”. We do not propose any catastrophic events.
Other coverage:
The Independent, UK Genetic differences between people across the world are no greater than differences between pigeons https://uk.news.yahoo.com/genetic-differences-between-people-across-184451249.html?guccounter=2
Europa Press, newswire, Spain La diferencia genética entre humanos, en el promedio de las especies https://www.europapress.es/ciencia/laboratorio/noticia-diferencia-genetica-humanos-promedio-especies-20180521172546.html
Agencia EFE, Spain Demostrado, no eres nada excepcional (Demonstrated, you’re nothing exceptional https://sevilla.abc.es/ciencia/abci-demostrado-no-eres-nada-excepcional-201805211531_noticia.html
RIA Novosti (newswire), Russia: Scientists have not found differences in the genetic diversity of humans and animals) https://ria.ru/science/20180521/1521018801.html?referrer_block=index_archive_1