Men outnumbered women in African exodus 60,000 years ago

Washington, Dec 22 (ANI): A new genetic study has revealed that men probably outnumbered women in the mass exodus 60,000 years ago, when modern humans left Africa.

Researchers believe that the particular migration was responsible for nearly all of the human population that exist outside Africa today.

Now, researchers have revealed that men and women weren't equal partners in that exodus.

By tracing variations in the X chromosome and in the non-sex chromosomes, the researchers found evidence that men probably outnumbered women in that migration.

The researchers are not sure why more men than women participated in the dispersion from Africa, or how natural selection might also contribute to these genetic patterns.

But, according to the study's lead author, Alon Keinan, these findings are "in line with what anthropologists have taught us about hunter-gatherer populations, in which short distance migration is primarily by women and long distance migration primarily by men."

The scientists expect that their method of comparing X chromosomes with the other non-gender specific chromosomes will be a powerful tool for future historical and anthropological studies, since it can illuminate differences in female and male populations that were inaccessible to previous methods. (ANI)