I love the power of genetics when it is applied toward
anthropology, most notably the study of early humans. In the
last decade it’s arguable that the study of genes — not fossils
— has taught us the most about our ancestors. A reconstructed
Neandertal skeleton, right, and a modern version of a Homo
sapien. For example, it was the study of DNA, not fossils, that
first definitively pinpointed the human-ape split to between 5
million and 7 million years ago. Nicholas Wade’s excellent
Before the Dawn does a nice job of telling the story of using
DNA evidence to reconstruct the past with precision. I was
recently speaking with Richard Gibbs, of Baylor College of
Medicine, and we were talking about the dozens of animals that
have had (or soon will) their DNA sequenced. He told me
something that blew me away: Within about five years, Gibbs
said, geneticists will be able to pinpoint at what time, and in
what species, each of the 20,000-odd human genes first appeared.
In that vein, then, comes this tantalizing news: