Putting a Clock on Evolution - Gil McVean

In a recent study that pushed back the human-chimp common ancestor back to approximately 13 million years ago, Oxford geneticist Gil McVean looked at the rates of genetic mutation in chimpanzees and humans. He learned that when a chimp father ages, the DNA it passes on contains more mutations that could potentially harm the offspring. Using these types of mutations, McVean was able to better study the rates of evolution of humans, chimpanzees and a common ancestor that once walked among us as well.