The Journey of Man: A Genetic OdysseyAllen Lane, 2002 - 224 pages Around 60,000 years ago, a man walked the soil of Africa. Every person alive today is descended from him. How did he come to be father to all of us - a real life Adam? To find out, Spencer Wells embarked on a unique voyage of discovery, travelling the world and deciphering the genetic codes of people from the Sahara Desert to Siberia. He reveals how our DNA enables us to work out where our ancestors lived, (and who they may have fought, loved and learned from); to re-trace their footsteps from Africa to the far corners of the earth ; to understand how we evolved into such a huge variety of sizes, shapes and races - and, ultimately, to create a family tree for the whole of humanity. |
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Page 17
... cent of the total . A further 7 per cent served to differentiate populations within a ' race ' , such as the Greeks from the Swedes . Only 8 per cent were found to differentiate between human races . A startling conclusion - and clear ...
... cent of the total . A further 7 per cent served to differentiate populations within a ' race ' , such as the Greeks from the Swedes . Only 8 per cent were found to differentiate between human races . A startling conclusion - and clear ...
Page 19
... 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 array of genetic ...
... 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 array of genetic ...
Page 72
... cent or more of the mitochondrial types in India , and close to 100 per cent of those in Australia . Quintana - Murci estimates its age to be 50-60,000 years , and from its distribution it seems that people who carried the M lineage ...
... cent or more of the mitochondrial types in India , and close to 100 per cent of those in Australia . Quintana - Murci estimates its age to be 50-60,000 years , and from its distribution it seems that people who carried the M lineage ...
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Common terms and phrases
Aborigines actually Adam Africa agriculture analysis ancient animals anthropologists apes appear Asian Australia Cavalli-Sforza cent central Asia China chromosomes clan climate coastal colleagues common ancestor continent culture Darwin defined descendants developed earliest early human east Asia Eurasian Europe Europeans evolution evolutionary expansion extinct favour frequency genes genetic data genetic diversity genetic variation geneticists genome Hindu Kush hominid Homo erectus human diversity 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 Mediterranean Middle East Middle Eastern migration million mitochondrial DNA modern humans molecules mtDNA mutations Native Americans Neanderthals Neolithic non-African northern nucleotide Nyae origin past perhaps polymorphisms recent region route sample Siberia simply soup recipes south-east Asia southern species spoken spread steppe suggests thousands trace unique Upper Palaeolithic western Y-chromosome lineages