We modern humans know the origins of our species, don’t we? Homo sapiens started out in one place — Africa. We then spread out across the Earth during the last 60,000 years or so, replacing archaic species such as Neanderthals and Homo erectus. And as modern humans spread out across the world in small numbers, our “racial” features began to develop in each region.
Over the past 20 years this “Out of Africa” school of thinking has risen to dominance. A wealth of evidence — by discoveries in fossils, archaeology and genetics — supports this explanation of how Homo sapiens evolved.
But now, a team of scientists has reconstructed the Neanderthal genome sequence for the first time, and the results have produced an intriguing twist to our evolutionary tale. If you are European, Asian or New Guinean, the research suggests you may have some Neanderthal blood racing through your veins — but not if you’re African. These surprising results are probably only the first of many, as the emerging science of fossil genomics builds up momentum.
read more
No comments:
Post a Comment