Boy’s Own

Erika Hagelberg

  • The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Astonishing Story that Reveals How Each of Us Can Trace Our Genetic Ancestors by Bryan Sykes
    Corgi, 368 pp, £6.99, May 2002, ISBN 0 552 14876 8
  • Mapping Human History: Unravelling the Mystery of Adam and Eve by Steve Olson
    Bloomsbury, 293 pp, £7.99, July 2003, ISBN 0 7475 6174 5
  • The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey by Spencer Wells
    Penguin, 224 pp, £8.99, May 2003, ISBN 0 14 100832 6

Until recently, the study of human prehistory relied on the material collected by archaeologists and palaeontologists. Bones, stones and pottery are not the only evidence now available to prehistorians, however: the DNA of living humans contains a record of the DNA of their ancestors. Molecular genetic techniques, developed originally in medical, agricultural and industrial research, have been seized on by scientists interested in the history of our species, and have led to spectacular advances in our understanding of human evolutionary history.

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