HOT Topic - Uncovering Our Past: Using Genomes to Understand Human Evolutionary History

DNA holds the story of our ancestors. The historical signatures of our past such as population mixtures, contractions, and expansions, as well as diseases and natural selection, have left traces in our genomes. Advances in sequencing present-day and ancient DNA have opened up unprecedented opportunities to use genetic data to better understand human biology and disease.
One of the most striking findings from genomic studies in the past decade is the discovery of gene flow from archaic hominins - Neanderthals and Denisovans - into the ancestors of modern humans.
In this video, Priya Moorjani, Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular & Cell Biology in the Center for Computational Biology at University of California, Berkeley, explores how we can utilize the genomes of thousands of contemporary individuals to characterize the legacy of archaic ancestry in modern humans. These analyses highlight the power of genomic data to illuminate our evolutionary history and answer enduring questions about human origins and adaptation.
Moderator: Briana Pobiner, paleoanthropologist and educator at Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.
This Zoom webinar aired October 17, 2024, as part of the ongoing HOT (Human Origins Today) Topic series.
Smithsonian's Human Origins Program website: humanorigins.s...
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History: naturalhistory...