The Black Death, the biggest pandemic of our history, was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis and lasted in Europe between the years 1346 and 1353. Despite the pandemic’s immense demographic and societal impacts, its origins have long been elusive. Now, a multidisciplinary team of scientists, including researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary…
Studying two highly divergent phyla of worms that contain numerous parasites that cause human and livestock diseases, the research group of Qi Zhou from the University of Vienna and Zhejiang University, sheds light on how sexual reproduction and subsequent great diversity of sex chromosomes might have evolved. Schematic picture designed by the authors: During evolution,…
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The structure of how DNA is stored in archaea makes a significant difference to how quickly it evolves, according to a new study by Indiana University researchers. Credit: wallpaperflare The study, led by molecular biologist Stephen Bell, Distinguished Professor and chair of the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry at…
Read More “DNA evolves at different rates, depending on chromosome structure” »
A new study combining archaeological, historical and bioarchaeological data provides new insights into the early Islamic period in modern-day Syria. The research team was planning to focus on a much older time period but came across what they believe to be remains of early Muslims in the Syrian countryside. Excavation at the Neolithic site of…
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The Wallacean islands have always been separated from Asia and Oceania by deep-sea waters. Yet, these tropical islands were a corridor for modern humans migrating into the Pleistocene Australia-New Guinea landmass (Sahul) and have been home to modern human groups for at least 47 thousand years. The archaeological record attests a major cultural transition across…
Read More “Prehistoric Wallacea: A melting pot of human genetic ancestries” »
The first successfully sequenced human genome from an individual who died in Pompeii, Italy, after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE is presented this week in a study published in The discovery of the two skeletons dates back to excavations between December, 1932 and February, 1933 by the archaeologist Amedeo Maiuri [Credit: Gabriele Scorrano…
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The Evolutionary Morphology Laboratory led by Shigeru Kuratani at the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research (CPR) in Japan, along with collaborators, has found evidence that the mysterious ancient fish-like vertebrate Palaeospondylus was likely one of the earliest ancestors of four-limbed animals, including humans. Published in the scientific journal Palaeospondylus as reconstructed by synchrotron radiation x-ray…
What links a finger bone and some fossil teeth found in a cave in the remote Altai Mountains of Siberia to a single tooth found in a cave in the limestone landscapes of tropical Laos? The answer to this question has been established by an international team of researchers from Laos, Europe, the US and…
Read More “Ancient tooth unlocks mystery of Denisovans in Asia” »
Trinity scientists, along with international colleagues, have explored the importance of sea travel in prehistory by examining the genomes of ancient Maltese humans and comparing these with the genomes of this period from across Europe. Previous findings from the archaeological team had suggested that towards the end of the third millennium BC the use of…
A critical goal in genetics and evolution is predicting the effects of mutations that may happen in the future and inferring the effects of those that happened in the past. To make these predictions, scientists generally assume that a mutation’s effects tested in the present apply to past and future versions of the same gene….
Read More “Genetic predictability steadily erodes during evolution, new study shows” »
