Encyclopedia of Evolution.pdf - Online Reading Center

DNA comparisons between humans and Neandertals have
been performed three times, with the same results (see figure
on page 130). James Noonan and others working with Pääbo
at the Max Planck Institute have begun an analysis of the
nuclear DNA of Neandertals, and hope to complete a rough
Neandertal genome by about 2008. Because nuclear DNA
evolves more slowly than mtDNA, there is a much greater
similarity (over 99%) of human and Neandertal nuclear
DNA than of mtDNA. Geneticist Edward Rubin is pursuing
similar research.
Native American origins. The mitochondrial DNA of
tribes native to North and South America clusters into three
groups. The first group is the Amerindians, which constitute
most of the Native American tribes, and which may have been
the first group of immigrants from Siberia into the New World
after the most recent of the ice ages. The second group is the
Inuit, also called Eskimos, whose ancestors arrived later, and
remained in northern North America. The third group is the
Na-Dene, which include the Apache and Navaho tribes. There
is no clear archaeological evidence that the ancestors of the
Apache and Navaho arrived in North America later than the
other Native American tribes, although Navaho oral tradition
indicates that when they arrived, the cliff dwellings of earlier
people had already been abandoned. Their DNA reveals this
important part of their history.
Human linguistic diversity. Geneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli-
Sforza has compared genetic variability (first of proteins, later
of DNA) and patterns of linguistic diversity among human
groups. The major genetic lineages of the human species correspond
roughly to the major language groups in the world
(see language, evolution of).
Other Uses of DNA Evidence
Genetic variability of endangered populations. The quantification
of DNA variability is also useful to assess how much
genetic variability is present in a population. Populations need
genetic variability in order for natural selection to occur, and
to avoid inbreeding depression. Endangered species and subspecies
often suffer from inbreeding depression (see extinction).
Also, when habitats are fragmented into small bits by
human activity, such as when one big forest becomes many
small woodlots surrounded by civilization, the small populations
in the fragments may suffer the loss of genetic variability.
DNA studies are now performed to determine the amount
of genetic variability within populations of endangered species
or in fragmented habitats. Without genetic variation, the
evolutionary future, and therefore the future, of these populations
and species is likely to be hopeless. In order to qualify
for governmental protection, a population must be shown to
be genetically different from other populations in order to
qualify as a distinct species or subspecies.
Genes and archaeology. DNA from human remains can
help to identify the origins of archaeological artifacts and
help reconstruct recent human prehistory. The result is a new
branch of research called “bio-archaeology.” Bio-archaeology
uses the analysis of DNA traces to determine what people ate,
what people hunted, how they cooked, and how long ago
humans domesticated various animals.
DNA (raw material of evolution)
Noncoding DNA, though of limited and possibly of no
use to the organism, turns out to be very useful in evolutionary
studies.
Further Reading
Carroll, Sean B. The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate
Forensic Record of Evolution. New York: Norton, 2006.
Cavalli-Sforza, Luigi Luca. “Genes, peoples, and languages.” Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences USA 94 (1997):
7,719–7,724.
Freeman, Scott, and Jon C. Herron. “The evidence for evolution.”
Chap. 2 in Evolutionary Analysis, 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River,
N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004.
Friedberg, Felix, and Allen Rhoads. “Calculation and verification of
the ages of retroprocessed pseudogenes.” Molecular Phylogenetics
and Evolution 16 (2000): 127–130.
Golenberg, E. M., et al. “Chloroplast DNA sequence from a Miocene
Magnolia species.” Nature 344 (1990): 656–658.
Gould, Stephen Jay. “Hen’s teeth and horse’s toes.” Chap. 14 in
Hen’s Teeth and Horse’s Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History.
New York: Norton, 1983.
Jones, Martin. The Molecule Hunt: Archaeology and the Search for
Ancient DNA. New York: Arcade Publishing, 2002.
Krings, Matthias, H. Geisert, Ralf Schmitz, Heike Krainitzki, Mark
Stoneking, and Svante Pääbo. “DNA sequence of the mitochondrial
hypervariable region II from the Neanderthal type specimen.”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 96
(1999): 5,581–5,585.
———, Anne Stone, Ralf Schmitz, Heike Krainitzki, Mark Stoneking,
and Svante Pääbo. “Neanderthal DNA sequences and the
origin of modern humans.” Cell 90 (1997): 19–30.
Lindsay, Jeff. “Does DNA evidence refute the book of Mormon?” Available
online. URL: http://www.jefflindsay.com/LDSFAQ/DNA.shtml.
Accessed April 18, 2006.
Marks, Jonathan. What It Means to Be 98 Percent Chimpanzee:
Apes, People, and Their Genes. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 2002.
Murphy, William J., et al. “Dynamics of mammalian chromosome
evolution inferred from multispecies comparative maps.” Science
309 (2005): 613–617.
Noonan, James P. et al. “Sequencing and analysis of Neanderthal
genomic DNA.” Science 314 (2006): 1113–1118.
Pennisi, Elizabeth. “The dawn of stone age genomics.” Science 314
(2006): 1068–1071.
Soltis, Pamela S., Douglas E. Soltis, and C. J. Smiley. “An rbcL
sequence from a Miocene Taxodium (bald cypress).” Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences USA 89 (1992): 449–451.
Wallace, Douglas C., and A. Torroni. “American Indian prehistory as
written in the mitochondrial DNA: A review. Human Biology 64
(1992): 403–416.
Watson, James D., with Andrew Berry. DNA: The Secret of Life.
New York: Knopf, 2003.
Wells, Spencer. The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey. Princeton,
N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2003.
Wilson, Allan C., and Rebecca L. Cann. “The recent African genesis
of humans.” Scientific American 266 (1992): 68–73.
DNA (raw material of evolution) DNA is the molecule
by which information passes from one generation to the next.