The Journey of Man: A Genetic OdysseyPenguin Adult, 2003 M05 29 - 288 pages Around 60,000 years ago, a man, identical to us in all important respects, walked the soil of Africa. Every man alive today is descended from him. How did he come to be father to all of us - a real-life Adam? And why do we come in such a huge variety of sizes, shapes, types and races if we all share a single prehistoric ancestor?
In this fascinating book, Spencer Wells shows how the truth about our ancestors is hidden in our genetic code, and reveals how developments in the cutting-edge science of population genetics have made it possible not just to discover where our ancestors lived (and who they may have fought, loved, learned from and influence) but to create a family tree for the whole of humanity. |
From inside the book
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... ancestors in each generation ( around twenty - five years ) , when we go back in time about 500 years each of us must have had over a million living ancestors . If we go back to the time of the Norman invasion of England , around a ...
... ancestors who lived at the time of our genetic Adam ? It is difficult to imagine what our common male and female ancestors would have looked like . We can only make informed guesses , based on the diversity we see in human populations ...
... ancestors come from over 70 per cent of men in southern England have it , showing that we all have the same recent ancestor . But this is not the only marker I have – if I trace my genetic lineage back in time , I also have additional ...