Our History, Our Future
The common ancestor that we shared with chimpanzees about six million years ago was much more like modern chimps than us. In our lineage, the hominids, so many changes occurred: bipedalism, substantially larger brains, tool use, language, and so on. The genetic bases of these important transitional changes remain murky at best. What genetics has shown us is that we are one species, somewhat lacking in genetic variation, and having only slight differences among different populations. Genetic studies have also shown that disease and other factors continue to substantially affect our evolutionary trajectory.
 | | | | | End Notes
| | - Ridley, M. Genome: The autobiography of a species in 23 chapters. Perennial.
- Lewontin, R. C., S. Rose, and L. J. Kamin. 1984. Not in our genes: Biology, ideology and human nature.
- Wills, C. 1995. When did Eve live? An evolutionary detective story. Evolution 49:593-607.
- Ovchinnikov, I. V., A. Gotherstrom, G. P. Romanova, V. M. Kharitonov, K. Liden, and W. Goodwin. 2000. Molecular analysis of Neanderthal DNA from the northern Caucasus. Nature 404:490-93.
- Wade, M. J. 2001. Epistasis, complex traits and mapping genes. Genetica 112/113:59-69.
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