Eurasian Adam (also known as Australian/Eurasian Adam or Out of Africa Adam[1]) is a name given to the man who was the common male-line (patrilinial) ancestor of all men with the single nucleotide polymorphism mutation on the Y chromosome known as "M168".[2] In other words he is the most recent common patrilineal ancestor of all men in Haplogroup CT, the haplogroup which is defined by having a common ancestor who had M168.

According to current research, he probably lived in Africa[3] and his descendants and his male line descendants are the only prehistoric one to survive outside of Africa into modern times. They also dominate the male population of Africa.

This term was developed in imitation of the concept of the more well-known "Y Chromosome Adam" indicating his important status as a second major point in human patrilineal history. However it is important to keep in mind that:
  • Eurasian Adam is named this way only to indicate his status as a founding father of a large male line within humanity; his name is not meant to imply a correspondence with Biblical Adam.
  • Eurasian Adam would have been a distant descendant of Y-chromosomal Adam, the patrilineal most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of all living men.
  • This second scientific "Adam" would not have been the same man made who first had the M168 mutation. M168 is simply the mutation first discovered that distinguishes his male line from those in Haplogroups A and B.
  • This man's surviving male line ancestors dominate all parts of the world, including Africa and America.
  • This man's importance is only to do with pure unbroken father-to-son male lines of ancestry, not all ancestry, and so this man was not "the ancestor of all Eurasians" or "the ancestor of all Africans".