The Journey of Man: A Genetic OdysseyRandom House Publishing Group, 2012 M10 31 - 240 pages Around 60,000 years ago, a man—genetically identical to us—lived in Africa. Every person alive today is descended from him. How did this real-life Adam wind up as the father of us all? What happened to the descendants of other men who lived at the same time? And why, if modern humans share a single prehistoric ancestor, do we come in so many sizes, shapes, and races? Examining the hidden secrets of human evolution in our genetic code, Spencer Wells reveals how developments in the revolutionary science of population genetics have made it possible to create a family tree for the whole of humanity. Replete with marvelous anecdotes and remarkable information, from the truth about the real Adam and Eve to the way differing racial types emerged, The Journey of Man is an enthralling, epic tour through the history and development of early humankind. |
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Page 15
... frequencies of blood groups among the diverse nationalities thrown together by the hostilities — the first direct survey ... frequency in India, it seems that there must have been two independent origins of modern humans. In the 19305 an ...
... frequencies of blood groups among the diverse nationalities thrown together by the hostilities — the first direct survey ... frequency in India, it seems that there must have been two independent origins of modern humans. In the 19305 an ...
Page 19
... frequency of 50 per cent to 70 per cent in a single generation — a pretty rapid change. Clearly, drift can have a huge effect on gene frequencies in small populations. The combination of these three forces has produced the dizzying ...
... frequency of 50 per cent to 70 per cent in a single generation — a pretty rapid change. Clearly, drift can have a huge effect on gene frequencies in small populations. The combination of these three forces has produced the dizzying ...
Page 21
... frequency owing to random sampling errors — the 'drift' mentioned above. What was exciting in his results was that drift seemed to change gene frequencies at a predictable rate. The difficulty with studying selection was that the speed ...
... frequency owing to random sampling errors — the 'drift' mentioned above. What was exciting in his results was that drift seemed to change gene frequencies at a predictable rate. The difficulty with studying selection was that the speed ...
Page 22
... frequency due entirely to sampling error. There has been great debate among biologists about the fraction of polymorphisms that are neutral - Kimura and his scientific followers thought that almost all genetic variation was free from ...
... frequency due entirely to sampling error. There has been great debate among biologists about the fraction of polymorphisms that are neutral - Kimura and his scientific followers thought that almost all genetic variation was free from ...
Page 23
... frequency were due to genetic drift. The second assumption was that the correct relationship among the populations ... frequencies are closest together, and that overall the relationship among the groups. ' Parsimony here is simply the ...
... frequency were due to genetic drift. The second assumption was that the correct relationship among the populations ... frequencies are closest together, and that overall the relationship among the groups. ' Parsimony here is simply the ...
Contents
1 | |
4Coasting Away | 61 |
Leaps and Bounds 8 | 81 |
Blood from a Stone 8The Importance of Culture 6 | 184 |
Acknowledgements | 197 |
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Common terms and phrases
actually Adam Africa agriculture analysis ancient animals anthropologists apes appear archaeological Asian Australia Cavalli-Sforza cent central Asia China chromosomes clan classification climate coastal colleagues common ancestor continent culture Darwin defined descendants developed difficult earliest early human east Asia Eurasian Europe Europeans evidence evolution evolutionary expansion favour field find first frequency genes genetic data genetic diversity genetic variation geneticists genome hominid Homo erectus human genetic human migration human populations hunter-gatherers hunting ice age impala India Indo-European Indo-European languages infer ingredients journey known languages leap lifestyle linguistic living marker Middle East Middle Eastern migration mitochondrial DNA modern humans molecules mtDNA mutations Native Americans Neanderthals Neolithic northern nucleotide origin past perhaps polymorphisms population genetics recent region route sample scientific Siberia significant simply soup recipes south-east Asia southern species spoken spread steppe suggests thousands trace unique Upper Palaeolithic western Y-chromosome lineages