Human evolution: a tale from ancient genomes

Abstract

One contribution of 17 to a theme issue 'Evo-devo in the genomics era, and the origins of morphological diversity'. The field of human ancient DNA (aDNA) has moved from mitochondrial sequencing that suffered from contamination and provided limited biological insights, to become a fully genomic discipline that is changing our conception of human history. Recent successes include the sequencing of extinct hominins, and true population genomic studies of Bronze Age populations. Among the emerging areas of aDNA research, the analysis of past epigenomes is set to provide more new insights into human adaptation and disease susceptibility through time. Starting as a mere curiosity, ancient human genetics has become a major player in the understanding of our evolutionary history.This article is part of the themed issue 'Evo-devo in the genomics era, and the origins of morphological diversity'.

Unlocking the origins and biology of domestic animals using ancient DNA and paleogenomics

“…The impact of this discovery has been such that the ancient DNA community now dub the period prior to 2014 "BP" ("before petrous") [124]. During the last 5 years, DNA extraction from petrous bones, coupled with constantly improving HTS and ancillary technologies, has led to a dramatic scale-up of human archaeogenetics, the cutting edge of which is now the statistically rigorous field of high-resolution population paleogenomics [82,[125][126][127][128][129]. Another notable outcome has been a substantial increase in the proportion of the Earth's surface area where archaeological excavation can uncover suitable material for successful aDNA extraction and paleogenomics analysis.…”

probabilistic definition of a species, fuzzy boundaries and ‘sigma taxonomy’

“…Morphometric and genetic analyses of a variety of living and fossil taxa [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] support the use of a probabilistic definition of a species in the context of 'sigma taxonomy' (where sigma represents 'S' for spectrum 6,7 ), in contrast to alpha taxonomy 8 , for which boundaries discriminating species are presumed to be distinct, thus accommodating only rigid, 'either-or' classification schemes.…”

“…This range of values is compatible with an approximation of a biological species constant (T) of -1.61±0.2 and lends support to the concept of 'sigma taxonomy'. 7 In a recent review article, Llamas et al 1 stated that 'Admixture…blurs the species limits for extinct groups, especially since the morphological identification of hybrids is difficult'. This 'blurring' of species limits, or 'fuzzy boundaries' as A.R.…”

The black legend on the Spanish presence in the low countries: Verifying shared beliefs on genetic ancestry

“…A genetic revolution is coursing through the field of human history, which was up until the last decade mainly trodden by historians and archaeologists (Krause & Paabo, ). Large population genome studies and innovative ancient genome methods are providing new insights into human migration routes and population admixtures, and pinpoint when individuals received certain heritable physical characteristics in the past (Llamas, Willerslev, & Orlando, ). Today, population genetic research is especially focused on long‐standing hypotheses about prehistorical migrations across the continents during, for example, the Neolithic and the Bronze Age (Lazaridis et al, ; Pagani et al, ).…”