Understanding the evolutionary history of human viruses, along with the factors that have shaped their spatial distributions, is one of the most active areas of study in the field of microbial evolution. I give an overview of our current knowledge of the genetic diversity of human viruses using comparative studies of viral populations, particularly those with RNA genomes, to highlight important generalities in the patterns and processes of viral evolution. Special emphasis is given to the major dichotomy between RNA and DNA viruses in their epidemiological dynamics and the different types of phylogeographic pattern exhibited by human viruses. I also consider a central paradox in studies of viral evolution: Although epidemiological theory predicts that RNA viruses have ancestries dating back millennia, with major ecological transitions facilitating their emergence, the genetic diversity in currently circulating viral populations has a far more recent ancestry, indicative of continual lineage turnover.

中文翻译：

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人类病毒的进化史和系统地理学。

了解人类病毒的进化历史以及影响人类空间分布的因素，是微生物进化领域最活跃的研究领域之一。我通过对病毒种群（尤其是具有RNA基因组的种群）的比较研究，概述了我们目前对人类病毒遗传多样性的认识，以突出病毒进化的模式和过程中的重要共性。在RNA和DNA病毒的流行病学动态以及人类病毒表现出的不同类型的系统地理学模式方面，特别强调了RNA和DNA病毒之间的主要二分法。在病毒进化研究中，我还考虑了一个中心悖论：尽管流行病学理论预测RNA病毒具有可以追溯到几千年的祖先，