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 48
... mean ? Genetically , it would mean that your son or daughter would have slightly less than two unrelated parents , since you would share some of your genome with your mate . This means that the multiplier in our ancestor calcu- lation ...
... mean ? Genetically , it would mean that your son or daughter would have slightly less than two unrelated parents , since you would share some of your genome with your mate . This means that the multiplier in our ancestor calcu- lation ...
Page 71
... means that men living in a particular area tend to share a recent common ancestor , providing us with clear ' fingerprints ' of particular geographic regions . What this means is that the Y gives us the clearest evidence for the ...
... means that men living in a particular area tend to share a recent common ancestor , providing us with clear ' fingerprints ' of particular geographic regions . What this means is that the Y gives us the clearest evidence for the ...
Page 128
... means that each child would be born with over a million new mutations . Biology takes a dim view of this level of mutation , and it is likely that the child would die of a horrible inherited disease - if it were born at all . Thus , the ...
... means that each child would be born with over a million new mutations . Biology takes a dim view of this level of mutation , and it is likely that the child would die of a horrible inherited disease - if it were born at all . Thus , the ...
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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