The study of the genomes of our closest relatives, the Neanderthals and Denisovans, has opened up new research paths that can broaden our understanding of the evolutionary history of Homo sapiens. A study led by the University of Barcelona has made an estimation of the time when some of the genetic variants that characterise our…
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For the first time, researchers successfully sequenced the genome of ancient human fossils from the Late Pleistocene in southern China. The data, published in the journal The lateral view of the skull unearthed from Red Dear Cave [Credit: Xueping Ji] “Ancient DNA technique is a really powerful tool,” Su says. “It tells us quite definitively…
Some copepods, diminutive crustaceans with an outsized place in the aquatic food web, can evolve fast enough to survive in the face of rapid climate change, according to new research that addresses a longstanding question in the field of genetics. Several species of copepods and one ostracod are shown here [Credit: NOAA] Barely more than…
An international team of researchers led by LMU paleontologist Bettina Reichenbacher has managed to classify fossils of one of the most species-rich fish groups into a family tree for the first time. Rhyacichthys guilberti [Credit: © Philippe Keith] Gobies are one of the most species-rich groups of ocean and freshwater fish. Found throughout the world…
New genetic research from remote islands in the Pacific offers fresh insights into the ancestry and culture of the world’s earliest seafarers, including family structure, social customs, and the ancestral populations of the people living there today. Guam (pictured) was one of the Pacific islands that scientists believe maintained a matrilocal population structure some 2,500 to…
EPFL scientists have produced a series of maps showing historical migration events, including the migration of mountain farmers native to Upper Valais who began to settle in German-speaking Switzerland in the 13th century, by applying methods from population genetics—but using linguistic data rather than genes. The map shows the relative influence of Upper Valais morphosyntactic…
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An international team led by The University of Vienna and the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology in collaboration with the National Museum of Korea has successfully sequenced and studied the whole genome of eight 1,700-year-old individuals dated to the Three Kingdoms period of Korea (approx. 57 BC-668 AD). The first published genomes from…
Read More “1,700-year-old Korean genomes show genetic heterogeneity in Three Kingdoms period Gaya” »
An international team led by researchers at McMaster University, working in collaboration with the University of Paris Cite, has identified and reconstructed the first ancient genome of E. coli, using fragments extracted from the gallstone of a 16th century mummy. Using pieces of a gallstone from a mummy from the 1500s, researchers have been able…
An analysis of ancient DNA from a 100,000-year-old polar bear has revealed that extensive hybridization between polar bears and brown bears occurred during the last warm interglacial period in the Pleistocene, leaving a surprising amount of polar bear ancestry in the genomes of all living brown bears. The skull of an ancient polar bear, nicknamed…
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Fair complexion, brown hair and brown, widely spaced eyes, a prominent chin, a petite figure, adorned with bronze and gold jewellery and a magnificent amber necklace: this is how the woman buried with luxurious equipment in Mikulovice near Pardubice looked like. An accurate and scientifically based reconstruction of her appearance was completed by anthropologist Eva…
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