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 81
... marker . All of his sons also carried this marker , marking them uniquely as his male descendants . They in turn passed it on to their sons , and over time it increased in frequency . Today , M173 is very common in western Europe ...
... marker . All of his sons also carried this marker , marking them uniquely as his male descendants . They in turn passed it on to their sons , and over time it increased in frequency . Today , M173 is very common in western Europe ...
Page 104
... markers that define our genetic lineages . If M168 defines a marker common to all non - African populations , then in our genetic recipe it is the equivalent of impala – the marker that unites everyone outside of Africa . If the lineage ...
... markers that define our genetic lineages . If M168 defines a marker common to all non - African populations , then in our genetic recipe it is the equivalent of impala – the marker that unites everyone outside of Africa . If the lineage ...
Page 127
... markers in western Europe and ask which Eurasian lineage they could have come from , and when . - I said at the beginning of Chapter 5 that my Y - chromosome is defined by a marker known as M173 . It turns out that this marker is not ...
... markers in western Europe and ask which Eurasian lineage they could have come from , and when . - I said at the beginning of Chapter 5 that my Y - chromosome is defined by a marker known as M173 . It turns out that this marker is not ...
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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