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 47
... lifestyle , and despite having a lifespan of over fifty years , the albatross always returns to the same island in order to mate . It mates for life , and its mate returns to the island as well , where they meet up to raise their single ...
... lifestyle , and despite having a lifespan of over fifty years , the albatross always returns to the same island in order to mate . It mates for life , and its mate returns to the island as well , where they meet up to raise their single ...
Page 130
... lifestyle . Most Neanderthals had broken bones , and many had quite extensive injuries that would have made them much less efficient members of the group . What modern humans accomplished with tools and brains , Neanderthals seem to ...
... lifestyle . Most Neanderthals had broken bones , and many had quite extensive injuries that would have made them much less efficient members of the group . What modern humans accomplished with tools and brains , Neanderthals seem to ...
Page 156
... lifestyle with a small minority of Middle Eastern immigrants . Rice Man While the complexity of Neolithic spread in Europe makes a simple interpretation of the genetic data difficult , the situation in the other major centre of Asian ...
... lifestyle with a small minority of Middle Eastern immigrants . Rice Man While the complexity of Neolithic spread in Europe makes a simple interpretation of the genetic data difficult , the situation in the other major centre of Asian ...
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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