8
Inferring Human Demographic History
from Genetic Data
Jeffrey D. Wall
Abstract
Genetics and archeology are two fields that provide complementary sources
of information on our history as a species. We review what has been learned
about human population history from recent genetic studies, including studies of
geographic structure, population bottlenecks, and recent population growth. We
also describe recent studies that highlight the importance of admixture in human
history, from the mixing of different continental populations in the Americas over
the past several centuries to ancient admixture between humans and Neanderthals
tens of thousands of years ago.
8.1
Introduction
Making inferences about human demographic history has been one of the primary
goals of human evolutionary studies for decades. Here demography refers to
the history of population relationships, migrations, admixture, and changes in
population size if we trace our ancestors back in time over the past 1–2 million
years. Archeology and physical anthropology have contributed tremendously to our
understanding of past demographic events (e.g., Jones et al. 1994), and the basic
outlines of our history are well established. The genus Homo first arose in Africa
roughly 2–2.5 million years ago, representing ancestors that were bipedal, used
tools, and had brain sizes substantially larger than those of chimpanzees. Some of
these early hominins then migrated to parts of tropical and temperate Eurasia 1.5–
2.0 million years ago, followed by a later migration into southern Europe. More
J. D. Wall ()
Institute for Human Genetics, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
e-mail: jeff.wall@ucsf.edu
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
K. E. Lohmueller, R. Nielsen (eds.), Human Population Genomics,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61646-5_8
187
Inferring Human Demographic History
from Genetic Data
Jeffrey D. Wall
Abstract
Genetics and archeology are two fields that provide complementary sources
of information on our history as a species. We review what has been learned
about human population history from recent genetic studies, including studies of
geographic structure, population bottlenecks, and recent population growth. We
also describe recent studies that highlight the importance of admixture in human
history, from the mixing of different continental populations in the Americas over
the past several centuries to ancient admixture between humans and Neanderthals
tens of thousands of years ago.
8.1
Introduction
Making inferences about human demographic history has been one of the primary
goals of human evolutionary studies for decades. Here demography refers to
the history of population relationships, migrations, admixture, and changes in
population size if we trace our ancestors back in time over the past 1–2 million
years. Archeology and physical anthropology have contributed tremendously to our
understanding of past demographic events (e.g., Jones et al. 1994), and the basic
outlines of our history are well established. The genus Homo first arose in Africa
roughly 2–2.5 million years ago, representing ancestors that were bipedal, used
tools, and had brain sizes substantially larger than those of chimpanzees. Some of
these early hominins then migrated to parts of tropical and temperate Eurasia 1.5–
2.0 million years ago, followed by a later migration into southern Europe. More
J. D. Wall ()
Institute for Human Genetics, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
e-mail: jeff.wall@ucsf.edu
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
K. E. Lohmueller, R. Nielsen (eds.), Human Population Genomics,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61646-5_8
187