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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... linguistic varieties , which eventually became distinct languages . The parallels with DNA evol- ution seem obvious . But is it possible to learn anything about language diversity - and to understand the present distribution of the ...
... linguistically unrelated groups , such as Na - Dene - speaking Native Americans and neighbouring Amerind speakers . Thus , genes were often markers of linguistic relationships , except when they weren't . Either way , the genetic data ...
... linguistic relationships , his attention having been drawn to it later by a colleague who studied the history of ... linguistic equivalent of our genetic Adam or Eve ? Joseph Greenberg , whom we encountered in Chapter 7 , was convinced ...