Paabo, Svante.

Neanderthal man: in search of lost genomes Svante Pääbo. - Hardcover - New York: Basic books; 2014 - ix, 275 pages: ill.; 25 cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Neanderthal ex machina --
Mummies and molecules --
Amplifying the past --
Dinosaurs in the lab --
Human frustrations --
A Croatian connection --
A new home --
Multiregional controversies --
Nuclear tests --
Going nuclear --
Starting the genome project --
Hard bones --
The devil in the details --
Mapping the genome --
From bones to genome --
Gene flow? --
First insights --
Gene flow! --
The replacement crowd --
Human essence? --
Publishing the genome --
A very unusual finger --
A Neanderthal relative.

"What can we learn from the genes of our closest evolutionary relatives? Neanderthal Man tells the story of geneticist Svante Paabo's mission to answer that question, beginning with the study of DNA in Egyptian mummies in the early 1980s and culminating in his sequencing of the Neanderthal genome in 2009. From Paabo, we learn how Neanderthal genes offer a unique window into the lives of our hominin relatives and may hold the key to unlocking the mystery of why humans survived while Neanderthals went extinct. Drawing on genetic and fossil clues, Paabo explores what is known about the origin of modern humans and their relationship to the Neanderthals and describes the fierce debate surrounding the nature of the two species' interactions. A riveting story about a visionary researcher and the nature of scientific inquiry, Neanderthal Man offers rich insight into the fundamental question of who we are"--

9780465020836 (hardback)

2013041877


Neanderthals.
Human population genetics.
Genome analysis.
SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Evolution.
SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Genetics & Genomics.
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Science & Technology.

GN285 / .P33 2014

569.9/86