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 89
... difficult for large primates to live on the savannah by gathering alone - plants and insects simply don't provide enough nourishment . Animals , particularly mammals , provide a high - calorie diet rich in protein . And it was the ...
... difficult for large primates to live on the savannah by gathering alone - plants and insects simply don't provide enough nourishment . Animals , particularly mammals , provide a high - calorie diet rich in protein . And it was the ...
Page 97
... difficult times or old age , so animals that are used to encountering difficulty set aside some of their resources during times of plenty . It is not a conscious decision , but rather an evolved instinctual behaviour - an adaptation to ...
... difficult times or old age , so animals that are used to encountering difficulty set aside some of their resources during times of plenty . It is not a conscious decision , but rather an evolved instinctual behaviour - an adaptation to ...
Page 187
... difficult to find Yagnob living in their ancient land . You might find cab drivers or cleaners in the capital who came from this region , but - except for a remote village several days ' hike into the mountains - the Yagnob had largely ...
... difficult to find Yagnob living in their ancient land . You might find cab drivers or cleaners in the capital who came from this region , but - except for a remote village several days ' hike into the mountains - the Yagnob had largely ...
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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