Ancestors In Our Genome Summary

Ancestors in Our Genome, addresses the continuingly advancing disagreement upon whom our closest ancestor is within the great apes, described as the hominoid trichotomy debate. The author, Eugene E. Harris examines many different sources of evidence within the book, and with the help of improvements in biological and DNA technology he helps discover who our closest ancestors were. Also when we were first separated from them and how the separation took place. Although there have been many recent advances in technology, a large number of unanswered questions are still a mystery within our genome and evolution from the great apes.

Chapter one discusses the debate of morphology - studying fossil evidence of the great apes - versus molecular

On the other hand, they could have gained favourable traits, that can be backcrossed to parent species and passed down through evolutionary history. As modern humans moved out of Africa, they had to learn quickly how to adapt to their new environment, and hybridisation with the Neanderthals benefited this as they gained genes from the already adapted species. One of the benefitting genes we gained from the hybridisation is immune genes which have been found to be from the Neanderthals and Denisovans. The hybrid offspring were better at fighting off certain diseases and this useful trait was passed on. To conclude hybridisation played a role in shaping the evolutionary history of modern humans but only to an extent. The modern humans gained many beneficial traits to help them as they explored into new environments - and may not have survived without the help of the hybridisation. On the other hand, there is not enough fossil evidence of the interbreeding between species, which could suggest that the two species did not interbreed often or when they did interbreed they did not produce