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UGI Seminar - Dr Joao Teixeira - University of Adelaide
24 November 2021, 3:00 pm–4:00 pm
Title : Hominin admixture in Island Southeast Asia
Event Information
Open to
- UCL staff | UCL students
Availability
- Yes
Organiser
-
Jackie Gadd
Location
-
Zoom...
Abstract : The hominin fossil record of Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) is among the richest in the world and documents the presence of several extinct human groups, including Homo erectus, H. luzonensis and H. floresiensis. In addition, present-day ISEA populations carry distinct genomic signatures of admixture with Denisovans, a separate hominin lineage that is not currently recognized in the ISEA fossil record. I will present a comprehensive analysis combining coalescent simulations and empirical observations to detect signatures of admixture events between extinct hominin groups and the ancestors of present-day ISEA populations, and discuss the implications of our results to the understanding of hominin history in ISEA.
About the Speaker
Dr Joao Teixeira
ARC Research Associate at University of Adelaide
I am a population geneticist focusing on the evolution of humans and closely related species. I work across a wide range of topics at the forefront of modern human evolutionary genetics, including demographic inference, comparative genomics and natural selection.
Currently, my main research focus revolves around human evolution during the Pleistocene, in particular the admixture events between so-called modern and archaic humans after the out-of-Africa and before human colonisation of Sahul.
I am expert on uncovering signatures of natural selection in the genome, in particular balancing selection, and continue to study how advantageous genetic diversity can be maintained for millions of years in natural populations.
More about Dr Joao Teixeira