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Virtual Explorations
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Visit our textbook-specific Online Learning Center Web site at www.mhhe.com/relethford8e to access the exercises that follow.

  1. The Blood of the Vikings

    2. http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/vikingorkney/genetics.htm.
    Orkney is a string of approximately 20 inhabited islands located roughly 10 miles off the coast of Caithness in northeast mainland Scotland. The article "The Blood of the Vikings—Orkney's Genetic Heritage" discusses recent controversial genetic evidence linking early Norse arrivals to the takeover of the islands. Male DNA evidence was used in a study conducted in 2000–2001 that indicated an exclusive Scandinavian influence.

    • Why did the study involve only males?
    • DNA analysis focused exclusively on the Y chromosome. Was there a particular reason for using Y-chromosome evidence?
    • What other sampling besides Orkney males was used?

      • Follow the article down to the link about family groups: http://www.nature.com/hdy/journal/v95/n2/abs/6800661a.html. The abstract of another article from Heredity involved female as well as male participants.

    • What evidence besides Y-chromosome evidence was used in the 2005 follow-up study? Why do you think this was necessary?
    • How does this new material add to the information already known concerning the original habitation of other Northern European countries?

  2. Evolutionary Population Genetics: Were the Vikings Immune to HIV?

    3. http://www.nature.com/hdy/journal/v96/n4/full/6800806a.html.
    This February 2006 article appeared in the journal Heredity. It discusses the genetic bases of disease resistance and suggests that AIDS spread rapidly over great distances but in a very selective area. Human resistance to the disease is also explained via a chance mutation.

    • Where did the initial resistance likely occur?
    • What is the name of the evolutionary biologist who originally suggested this model?
    • How do Vikings play a role in this theory?





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