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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... polymorphisms are recombined many , many times , and after hundreds or thousands of generations , the pattern of polymorphisms that existed in the common ancestor of the chromosomes has been entirely lost . The descendant chromosomes ...
... polymorphisms in that region . So , in the same way that you are uniquely defined by your polymorphisms as being the child of your parents , so too are people from a particular part of the world carrying a genetic signal of their ...
... polymorphism at the ZFY locus on the human Y - chromosome ' , it described an analysis of thirty - eight men from around the world as part of a focused effort to discover polymorphisms on their Y - chromosomes . Although a few polymorphisms ...