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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... marker . All of his sons also carried this marker , marking them uniquely as his male descendants . They in turn passed it on to their sons , and over time it increased in frequency . Today , M173 is very common in western Europe ...
... markers that define our genetic lineages . If M168 defines a marker common to all non - African populations , then in our genetic recipe it is the equivalent of impala - the marker that unites everyone outside of Africa . If the lineage ...
... markers in western Europe and ask which Eurasian lineage they could have come from , and when . ― - - I said at the beginning of Chapter 5 that my Y - chromosome is defined by a marker known as M173 . It turns out that this marker is ...