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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 37
Page 29
... polymorphisms are recombined many , many times , and after hundreds or thousands of generations , the pattern of polymorphisms that existed in the common ancestor of the chromosomes has been entirely lost . The descendant chromosomes ...
... polymorphisms are recombined many , many times , and after hundreds or thousands of generations , the pattern of polymorphisms that existed in the common ancestor of the chromosomes has been entirely lost . The descendant chromosomes ...
Page 48
... polymorphisms in that region . So , in the same way that you are uniquely defined by your polymorphisms as being the child of your parents , so too are people from a particular part of the world carrying a genetic signal of their ...
... polymorphisms in that region . So , in the same way that you are uniquely defined by your polymorphisms as being the child of your parents , so too are people from a particular part of the world carrying a genetic signal of their ...
Page 49
... polymorphism at the ZFY locus on the human Y - chromosome ' , it described an analysis of thirty - eight men from around the world as part of a focused effort to discover polymorphisms on their Y - chromosomes . Although a few polymorphisms ...
... polymorphism at the ZFY locus on the human Y - chromosome ' , it described an analysis of thirty - eight men from around the world as part of a focused effort to discover polymorphisms on their Y - chromosomes . Although a few polymorphisms ...
Other editions - View all
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