title: Human evolution: a tale from ancient genomes.
abstract: The field of human ancient DNA (aDNA) has moved from mitochondrial sequencing that suffered from contamination and provided limited biological insights, to become a fully genomic discipline that is changing our conception of human history. Recent successes include the sequencing of extinct hominins, and true population genomic studies of Bronze Age populations. Among the emerging areas of aDNA research, the analysis of past epigenomes is set to provide more new insights into human adaptation and disease susceptibility through time. Starting as a mere curiosity, ancient human genetics has become a major player in the understanding of our evolutionary history.This article is part of the themed issue 'Evo-devo in the genomics era, and the origins of morphological diversity'.
authors.affiliation: Australian Centre for ADNA, School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia.
authors.forename: Bastien
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5550-9176
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Llamas
authors.affiliation: Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, Øster Voldgade 5-7, 1350 K Copenhagen, Denmark.|Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK.|Wellcome Genome Campus Hinxton, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge CB10 1SA, UK.
authors.forename: Eske
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7081-6748
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Willerslev
authors.affiliation: Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, Øster Voldgade 5-7, 1350 K Copenhagen, Denmark lorlando@snm.ku.dk.|Laboratoire d'Anthropobiologie Moléculaire et d'Imagerie de Synthèse, Université de Toulouse, University Paul Sabatier, CNRS UMR 5288, 31000 Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Ludovic
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3936-1850
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Orlando
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000072441:DNA, Ancient / Q000032:analysis*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D015894:Genome, Human; D015186:Hominidae / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D000072441:DNA, Ancient
keywords: Archaic hominins; ancient DNA; anthropology; human evolution