So, about 50,000-100,000 years ago, humans left Africa from east Africa near the Red Sea. The same pattern that made us populate Africa, made us populate the world, with groups splitting off and regrouping. The people who hold genetic markers for all of us, for every single living person in the world today, are descendants of those who stayed behindâ€"the original founding colony. Those who hold the fewest genetic markers in common with the rest of us, are those that traveled the farthest, the end result of all those splits, the last wave of adventurers, who split off from groups in east Asia and colonized the Americas and Polynesia.
The people who today hold the most diverse genetic structure in the world are the San bushmen of South Africa. This isn't a new finding, but it confirms the findings of earlier research of mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosomes. Thus, the San are likely to be the descendants of the first group who stayed behind, the first group of humans who colonized Africa and then the rest of the world.
The San aren't "older" than any of us, we are all the same time distance from those first colonists, but they are the descendants of those who stayed behind, and not descended from those of us who wandered off. Interestingly, the DNA research is supported by the linguistic research as well.
Sources and Further Information
Tishkoff, Sarah A., et al. 2009 The Genetic Structure and History of Africans and African Americans. Science Express. 30 April 2009
Human Migration from Africa: Four Theories
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