Dramatic advances in ancient DNA technologies have revolutionized our understanding of the human past. Today, the genomes of more than 10,000 ancient humans have been sequenced. The new series from CARTA, Ancient DNA – New Revelations, explores the diverse applications of archaeogenomics in shaping not only a new vision of the human past, but also in creating a greater understanding of the present and our shared human future.
Highlights from the series include:
Archaic Introgression Reveals Human Dispersals
Professor Janet Kelso, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, shows how we are using the distribution of Neandertal and Denisovan ancestry in ancient and present-day modern humans to determine when, where and how often modern and archaic humans met and mixed.
Archaic Human Genomes
Professor Diyendo Massilani, Yale University School of Medicine, explains how ancient genomes from Neanderthals, Denisovans, and other archaic humans reveal that modern humans interbred with now-extinct groups, and how their DNA still shapes our biology and understanding of human evolution today.
Evolutionary Switches – How Regulatory Variants Shaped Human Evolution
Professor David Gokhman, Weizmann Institute of Science, explores how changes in gene regulation shaped recent human evolution.
Human Population History in North and East Asia
Professor Choongwon Jeong, Seoul National University, discusses the divergent genetic history of the Kazakh and Mongolian Steppe populations, the genetic interaction between the steppe pastoralists and their neighbors, and a comparison between the genetic history of human and domesticated animal populations.