Stop 3: Madurai, South India
Today, there is no evidence of ancient man in South India, until geneticist Dr. Spencer Wells visited an isolated village just west of Madurai. By following an ancient marker originating in Africa, Wells traced the journey of humans around the globe and it landed him in India for his third stop. In this isolated village, a single man had the trace in his genes, therefore proving that humans passed through India on their journey to populate the world. But how did Wells find it? First, he had to take hundreds of blood samples from the men of the area, (But why only the men?) because the 'Y' chromosome remains unchanged, unlike the 'X' chromosome that is altered during crossing over. Next, the DNA is separated from the blood so it can be read in the dna sequencing machine. The machine reads the actual letters on DNA and is looking for a single mistake in a strand of billions of letters. The marker is found in the DNA of one the men, which means ancient humans passed through India before going to Australia. However, 150 miles of ocean still diivided India and Australia, and the humans were able to make it over during the next Quantum Leap. But where did they go next?