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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... extinct species of the same region . It is therefore probable that Africa was formerly inhabited by extinct apes closely allied to the gorilla and chimpanzee ; and as these two species are now man's nearest allies , it is somewhat more ...
... extinct almost immediately after the arrival of the Moderns , if not before . What is uncertain is whether we actively forced them out of the picture - a genocidal scenario that we will explore in greater detail when we get to Europe ...
... extinct , we would lose the only remaining link back to the pre - Indo - European languages of Europe . If the ... extinct , a victim of European colonialism . Linguists Daniel Nettles and Suzanne Romaine estimate that over half of the ...