The father of all humans lived 239,000 years ago
By sequencing the genomes of 2,636 Icelanders — the largest set ever obtained from a single population — researchers were able to identify that genetic mutations play a role in everything from Alzheimer’s disease to liver disease. The Icelandic data also suggest that humanity’s most recent common male ancestor, the "father" of us all, would have lived between 174,000 and 321,000 years ago.
The estimate for the most recent common male ancestor contradicts some past findings. A 2013 study from the University of Arizona estimated that the age of the father of all humans is about 340,000 years old. But the Icelandic analysis indicates he probably lived about 239,000 years ago — a number that’s much closer to the estimate for humanity’s most recent common female ancestor, who lived about 200,000 years ago. "[Humans] are curious about where we came from, and how we became the way we are," says Agnar Helgason, a genetic anthropologist at the University of Iceland and a co-author of the common ancestor study published today. "And this gives us a bit more information about when."
From an evolutionary standpoint, older species have more time to develop mutations that differentiate individuals, or populations, from one another. That means the age of the human species is also related to how diverse humans are as a whole.
http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/25/8290303/father-humans-239000-years-ago-iceland-genome
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