Dec 22 2008
In the world of genetic anthropology, mitochondrial DNA and the Y-chromosome are the major players. They are regions of our genome scientists use most frequently when tracing both ancient and historical human migrations, and are an important tool for genealogists using DNA to piece together their family trees.
But another part of the human genome has [...]
Jul 15 2008
The place of Neanderthals in the story of human evolution has been hotly debated for decades. A distant cousin to our species, Neanderthals had already been in Europe over 250,000 years when Homo sapiens first arrived there 35,000 years ago.
Often called Cro-Magnoids, these first Europeans are believed by many scientists to have out-competed the Neanderthals, [...]
Jul 03 2008
Last month I had the opportunity to go to the Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution conference in the striking city of Barcelona. This is the premiere conference for geneticists studying evolution in everything from bacteria to fruit flies, weeds, worms and our favorite model organism, humans! This is a highly interactive conference: almost everyone [...]
