Summary

Ms. Selina Carlhoff, PhD candidate at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, talks about the basics of DNA, what you should know about ancient DNA, and some of the ethical complexities that come with studying prehistoric populations. She also fills us in on her article in Nature, “Genome of a middle Holocene hunter-gatherer from Wallacea.“

Recommendations

• Selina Carlhoff’s MPI-FEA bio
• Introduction to Archaeogenetics [Link opens in YouTube]
• Genome of hunter-gatherer from Wallacea report
• Ancient genome report
• Wagner, Jennifer K. et al. Fostering Responsible Research on Ancient DNA. The American Journal of Human Genetics, Volume 107, Issue 2, 183 – 195
• Alpaslan-Roodenberg, S., Anthony, D., Babiker, H. et al. Ethics of DNA research on human remains: five globally applicable guidelines. Nature 599, 41–46 (2021).
• Explorations: An Open Invitation to Biological Anthropology, Ed. by B Shook, L Braff, K Nelson, K Aguilera. 2nd Ed. 2023.
• N. K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy