More Fun Than Fun: Learning How Fruit Flies Disperse – From a Tabletop 17/03/2021
L-R: Sudipta Tung, Sutirth Dey and Abhishek Mishra, the trio that created nomadic fruit flies in their lab in IISER Pune. Photo: Sutirth Dey.
Spectacular advances in genetic technology in the past couple of decades have revolutionised our understanding of how different parts of the globe came to be occupied by
Homo sapiens. We now have evidence that
Homo sapiens evolved in Africa between 300,000 and 150,000 years ago; successfully dispersed out of Africa between 100,000 and 70,000 years ago; reached Central Asia (including India), Europe and Australia some 65,000 years ago; and reached the Americas about 16,000 years ago.