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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... inferring things about the past . This is quite a leap , since it implies that by looking at the present we can say ... infer evolutionary history in such a way as to minimize complexity . It is not necessarily the method known as ...
... infer a common ancestor and estimate a date . In the abstract to the paper they state the main finding clearly and succinctly : ' All these mitochondrial DNAs stem from one woman who is postulated to have lived about 200,000 years ago ...
... infer that the population is older - and this makes Africa the oldest of all . - But does the placement of the root ... inferring a single common ancestor is that each descendant lineage continues to change at the same rate , and ...