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BIO208 JOURNEY OF MAN

  1. Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza has been a professor at Stanford University.Cavalli-Sforza used blood, rather than DNA. What was his objective?
  1. Spencer Wells is a geneticist and anthropologist, an Explorer in Residence at the National Geographic Society and a Professor at Cornell University. What does Wells mean by mutation as “marker”.
  1. Merritt Ruhlen has been a lecturer in at Stanford and co-director of the Program on the Evolution of Human Languages and is visiting professor at the City University of Hong Kong. According to Ruhlen, what does the San language potentially tell us about the language of our human ancestors?
  1. Dekelders cave contains 80,000 year old human bones from the Stone Age. According to Wells, these humans had not yet made the “leap” of thinking. What do we know about the early humans that lived in the cave on the South African coast in terms of their abilities?What happened to the region and to the human population around 60,000 years ago - why can’t we find remnants of this population?
  1. Julia Lee-Thorp is a Professor in the Archaeology Department, University of Capetown.

What information do foraminifera (protists) hold and why is this information relevant to understanding the human population 72,000 years ago?

The genetic evidence, a Y chromosome marker in Aboriginal Australians, suggests that humans migrated from Africa to Australia about 50,000 years ago. It is not clear how they got there, there is no archeological evidence along the route.

  1. Ramasamy Pitchappan, Professor, Madurai Kamaraj University

How are Y chromosome markers, (SNP) polymorphisms, useful in tracing migration patterns? What makes the Y chromosome particularly useful?

What is the specific nucleotide marker that is found in the man who lives in the isolated Indian village?

7.Richard Kleinis a Professor of Biology and Anthropology at Stanford University. His primary thesis is that modern humans evolved in Africa~ 100,000 years ago and, starting 50,000 years ago, began spreading throughout the non-African world, replacing archaic human populations over time.

What does Klein believe to be the force driving this second wave of migration?

What are the 3 main regions that humans migrated to?

8.Michel Lorblanchet, prehistorian. What prevented humans from reaching Europe for another ~10,000 years?

  1. North AmericaAbout 15,000 years ago, a group ancestral people migrated across the Bering Strait into North America. Who are the descendants of these people today?

About how many people are thought to have crossed into North America 15,000 years ago?

  1. Summary: Explain why isolated populations are important to study to learn about our genetic past.

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