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 85
Page 91
... population , where we double the number of offspring each generation . Most obviously , the population increases in size rapidly - if we actually allowed the bacteria to divide without constraint for a few days , they would take over ...
... population , where we double the number of offspring each generation . Most obviously , the population increases in size rapidly - if we actually allowed the bacteria to divide without constraint for a few days , they would take over ...
Page 155
... population expansion , because it allowed much higher population densities . How do we reconcile the pattern seen for the Y - chromosome and mtDNA , of a Palaeolithic European population relatively unaffected by Neolithic immigration ...
... population expansion , because it allowed much higher population densities . How do we reconcile the pattern seen for the Y - chromosome and mtDNA , of a Palaeolithic European population relatively unaffected by Neolithic immigration ...
Page 192
... populations into a larger , dominant population – in the same way that Manx was subsumed into English - speaking Britain . It is rarely the case that a minority population actually dies - rather , it is simply incorporated into the ...
... populations into a larger , dominant population – in the same way that Manx was subsumed into English - speaking Britain . It is rarely the case that a minority population actually dies - rather , it is simply incorporated into the ...
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