Polygenic prediction of human complex traits using ancient DNA

Ancient DNA has revolutionized our understanding of human history and clarified many aspects of human evolution on a molecular level. In this article, I describe recent efforts to translate this into descriptions of phenotypic change over time and to predict phenotypes of ancient groups and individuals. I do not discuss the more challenging problem of distinguishing between adaptive and neutral evolution and instead focus entirely on whether phenotypes and their evolution can be accurately reconstructed. I begin by describing the conceptual and technical limitations of current approaches, and then discuss efforts to reconstruct various phenotypes and the extent to which they are reliable.