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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... genes found on the Y. The number of active genes varies greatly among different parts of the genome . In the mitochondrion , for instance , there are thirty - seven . The total number of genes in the nuclear genome is around 30,000 ...
... genetic methods . When we sample people alive today , and examine their DNA to look for clues about their past , we are literally studying their genealogy - the history of their genes . As we have seen , people inherit their genes from ...
... genes and languages disagreed , showing that the correspondence wasn't absolute . The reasons for this might be language replacement , in which people learn to speak a new language without a corresponding influx of outside genes , or gene ...