The Journey of Man: A Genetic OdysseyPenguin Adult, 2003 M05 29 - 224 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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... early human populations followed herds of grazing animals - particularly antelope - from summer pastures in the hills surrounding the Mediterranean and the Red Sea , down to the warmer coastal regions in the winter . It was this gradual ...
... early human evolution , has compared the Sahara to a kind of hominid ' pump ' . During wetter periods , the Sahara would have sustained human populations , perhaps focused around oases or rivers , or limited to zones that received ...
... early part of this period , around 40,000 years ago , when Upper ... human , mammoths were the size of small buses , with intimidating tusks and ... human populations . While the relative levels of scavenging and - hunting practised by ...