Ancestors in Our Genome
The New Science of Human Evolution
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- £11.99
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- £11.99
Publisher Description
The complete DNA molecules comprising the human genome were deciphered two decades ago. With this discovery began a remarkable genomic voyage back in time yielding a new science of human evolution. We are just beginning to unravel our full genomic history and answering age-old questions about how and when we evolved. For the first time, we are finding our ancestors in our genome and gleaning tantalizing clues about our past.
Molecular anthropologist Eugene E. Harris now gives us an updated and expanded version of the original Ancestors in Our Genome. Written from the perspective of population genetics, and in simple terms, his book traces human origins back to our earliest human ancestors and explains how our genome has adapted as we spread to colonize new regions on Earth. Harris's book reveals the latest insights into our relationships with our extinct cousins, the Neandertals and Denisovans, and describes where, when and to what extent we mated with them, probing the good and bad consequences of this.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
With the sequencing of the human genome, the genomes of many of our primate relatives, and those of both Neanderthals and Denisovans (another hominin), scientists are now able to answer previously unimaginable questions about our origins. Harris, of New York University's Center for the Study of Human Origins, uses these new data sets and tools to "tell the story of the genetic quest, from small stretches of DNA to entire genomes, to trace our past to the origin of our lineage and find our closest ape relative." He presents a sophisticated introduction to population genetics, explaining how gene data can be used to verify or dismiss competing hypotheses for how and when early humans moved out of Africa; the size and timing of the ancestral population that gave rise to both humans and chimpanzees; and how and when humans, and perhaps human ancestors, developed the ability to speak. Harris also explores the current knowledge of individual gene changes that underlie human physiology and behavior, and describes how we know how much Neanderthal and Denisovan genetic material is extant in various human groups while discussing the evolutionary implications of those remnants. The book is technical, thus challenging for the general reader, but is written well enough to make the effort worthwhile. B&w illus.
