The human race was divided into two separate groups within Africa for as much as half of its existence, says a Tel Aviv University mathematician.

Climate change, reduction in populations and harsh conditions may have caused and maintained the separation.

Dr. Saharon Rosset, from the School of Mathematical Sciences at Tel Aviv University, worked with team leader Doron Behar from the Rambam Medical Center to analyze African DNA. Their goal was to study obscure population patterns from hundreds of thousands of years ago.

“We wanted to look into the ancient history of our species. How did we live throughout most of our existence as a species?  Did we live as one — or were we fractured into small groups? Until now, it wasn’t really clear,” says Rosset.

This work has since been extended to show unequivocally that “Mitochondrial Eve” was an African woman who lived sometime during the past 200,000 years.