The Journey of Man: A Genetic OdysseyRandom House Publishing Group, 2012 M10 31 - 240 pages Around 60,000 years ago, a man—genetically identical to us—lived in Africa. Every person alive today is descended from him. How did this real-life Adam wind up as the father of us all? What happened to the descendants of other men who lived at the same time? And why, if modern humans share a single prehistoric ancestor, do we come in so many sizes, shapes, and races? Examining the hidden secrets of human evolution in our genetic code, Spencer Wells reveals how developments in the revolutionary science of population genetics have made it possible to create a family tree for the whole of humanity. Replete with marvelous anecdotes and remarkable information, from the truth about the real Adam and Eve to the way differing racial types emerged, The Journey of Man is an enthralling, epic tour through the history and development of early humankind. |
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Page 19
... simply recognizing the existence of human diversity at a biochemical level, and knowing something about the way genes behave in populations, didn't really say much about the details of human evolution and migration. Enter an Italian ...
... simply recognizing the existence of human diversity at a biochemical level, and knowing something about the way genes behave in populations, didn't really say much about the details of human evolution and migration. Enter an Italian ...
Page 20
... simply too much variation to account for if most of the mutants were carrying a suboptimal genetic package. If, instead, one thought of variation as the normal state of species, then evolution suddenly made much more sense. There was a ...
... simply too much variation to account for if most of the mutants were carrying a suboptimal genetic package. If, instead, one thought of variation as the normal state of species, then evolution suddenly made much more sense. There was a ...
Page 22
... simply in Latin: Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate (plurality is not to be posited without necessity). In its most basic form, Ockham's statement is a philosophical commitment to a particular view of the universe - a view that ...
... simply in Latin: Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate (plurality is not to be posited without necessity). In its most basic form, Ockham's statement is a philosophical commitment to a particular view of the universe - a view that ...
Page 23
... simply the application of methods which infer evolutionary history in such a way as to minimize complexity. It is not necessarily the method known as 'maximum parsimony' used by many population geneticists. ' Cavalli-Sforza and Edwards ...
... simply the application of methods which infer evolutionary history in such a way as to minimize complexity. It is not necessarily the method known as 'maximum parsimony' used by many population geneticists. ' Cavalli-Sforza and Edwards ...
Page 28
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Contents
1 | |
4Coasting Away | 61 |
Leaps and Bounds 8 | 81 |
Blood from a Stone 8The Importance of Culture 6 | 184 |
Acknowledgements | 197 |
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Common terms and phrases
actually Adam Africa agriculture analysis ancient animals anthropologists apes appear archaeological Asian Australia Cavalli-Sforza cent central Asia China chromosomes clan classification climate coastal colleagues common ancestor continent culture Darwin defined descendants developed difficult earliest early human east Asia Eurasian Europe Europeans evidence evolution evolutionary expansion favour field find first frequency genes genetic data genetic diversity genetic variation geneticists genome hominid Homo erectus human genetic human migration human populations hunter-gatherers hunting ice age impala India Indo-European Indo-European languages infer ingredients journey known languages leap lifestyle linguistic living marker Middle East Middle Eastern migration mitochondrial DNA modern humans molecules mtDNA mutations Native Americans Neanderthals Neolithic northern nucleotide origin past perhaps polymorphisms population genetics recent region route sample scientific Siberia significant simply soup recipes south-east Asia southern species spoken spread steppe suggests thousands trace unique Upper Palaeolithic western Y-chromosome lineages