Director’s guest: Eva-Maria Geigl, team “Épigénome et paléogénome”, Institut Jacques-Monod, Paris – “A genomic view of the peopling of Europe over the last 500,000 years”

Abstract

Paleogenomics, the analysis of DNA preserved in ancient remains, sheds light on the evolution of species, their population dynamics, their migrations, expansions, contractions, replacements, extinctions and hybridizations. Despite particular methodological challenges owing to the degraded nature of ancient DNA, the growing production of ancient human genomes has led to the blooming of the field of human paleogenomics revolutionizing our view of the last stages of human evolution. Moreover, the interpretation of the produced ancient genomic data in the light of archaeological data yielded unprecedented and surprising insights into the interplay of population dynamics and cultures and the resulting societal phenomena. In my seminar I will give an overview of the highlights from the last 10 years in the field of ancient human DNA research.

As an appetizer see here, here, here, or here