Genetic Archaeology Research & News

Ancient protein offers clues to killer condition (5/13/2008)

More than 600 million years of evolution has taken two unlikely distant cousins - turkeys and scallops - down very different physical paths from a common ancestor. But researchers have found that a motor protein, myosin 2, remains structurally identical in both creatures. ...> Full Article

Worldwide platypus study tracks 160 million years (5/9/2008)

A four-year international research project to sequence the entire genetic record of the platypus over the past 160 million years has revealed new insights into the biology of Australia's famous icon. ...> Full Article

The cooperative view: New evidence suggests a symbiogenetic origin for the centrosome (5/8/2008)

The origin of the centrosome, a component of animal cells that functions in cell division. ...> Full Article

Animal interaction behind 'Cambrian Explosion'? (5/7/2008)

'Missing' ancestors of today's animals may not be missing after all ...> Full Article

8 new human genome projects offer large-scale picture of genetic difference (5/1/2008)

Projects give view of structural differences among individuals and find previously unknown human DNA ...> Full Article

Protein Sequences from T. rex Collagen Show Evolutionary Relationships of Dinosaurs (4/26/2008)

Researchers have used protein sequences from 68 million-year-old bone-derived collagen to determine the evolutionary relationships of T. rex ...> Full Article

Dawn of human matrilineal diversity (4/25/2008)

Early human populations evolved separately for 100,000 years ...> Full Article

Researchers find dinosaur clues in fat (4/24/2008)

A team of researchers at has discovered why birds, unlike mammals, lack a tissue that is specialized to generate heat. ...> Full Article

Clues To Ancestral Origin Of Placenta Emerge In Genetics Study (4/18/2008)

Researchers have uncovered the first clues about the ancient origins of a mother's intricate lifeline to her unborn baby, the placenta, which delivers oxygen and nutrients critical to the baby's health. ...> Full Article

The first humans went to America earlier than was thought (4/16/2008)

With the aid of DNA analysis of 14,500-year-old feces, researchers have now been able to show that American Indians were present in America earlier than has long been thought ...> Full Article

When Genetics And Geology Meet In Patagonia (4/14/2008)

Study argues observed changes in freshwater fish demographics occurred in response to climate change over the past three million years ...> Full Article

Ancient DNA: reconstruction of the biological history of Aldaieta necropolis (4/12/2008)

A research team has reconstructed the history of the evolution of human population and answered questions about history, using DNA extracted from skeleton remains. ...> Full Article

And the First Animal on Earth Was a ... (4/11/2008)

Evolutionary history of the comb jelly reveals surprising clues about Earth's first animal ...> Full Article

Meteorites delivered the 'seeds' of Earth's left-hand life (4/10/2008)

Desert heat, a little water, and meteorite impacts may have been enough to cook up one of the first prerequisites for life ...> Full Article

Scientists Find a Fingerprint of Evolution Across the Human Genome (4/9/2008)

Splicing exerts selective pressure on DNA sequence ...> Full Article

Grim warning on climate change from ancient DNA (4/8/2008)

The study of preserved ancient genetic material provides a "grim warning" about the potential impacts of climate change on our animal populations ...> Full Article

Scientists visualize the machinery of mRNA splicing (4/6/2008)

Recent research has provided a glimpse of the ancient mechanism that helped diversify our genomes; it illuminated a relationship between gene processing in humans and the most primitive organisms by creating the first crystal structure of a crucial self-splicing region of RNA. ...> Full Article

Is DNA Repair a Substitute for Sex? (4/5/2008)

Team proposes an interesting hypothesis: Bdelloid rotifers have been able to give up sex and survive because they have evolved an extraordinary efficient mechanism for repairing harmful mutations to their DNA ...> Full Article

Archaeologist find pre-Clovis human DNA (4/4/2008)

Human DNA from dried excrement recovered from Oregon's Paisley Caves is the oldest found yet in the New World -- dating to 14,300 years ago, some 1,200 years before Clovis culture -- and provides apparent genetic ties to Siberia or Asia ...> Full Article

Study suggests evolutionary source of alcoholism's accidental enemy (4/3/2008)

Some change in the environment in many East Asian communities during the past few thousand years may have protected residents from becoming alcoholics ...> Full Article

Scientists reshape Y chromosome haplogroup tree gaining new insights into human ancestry (4/2/2008)

Scientists have utilized recently described genetic variations on the part of the Y chromosome that does not undergo recombination to significantly update and refine the Y chromosome haplogroup tree ...> Full Article

Study Questions 'Cost of Complexity' in Evolution (4/1/2008)

Higher organisms do not have a "cost of complexity" - or slowdown in the evolution of complex traits ...> Full Article

Genetic Study Of Latin Americans Sheds Light On A Troubled History (3/24/2008)

A recent molecular analysis of ancestry across Latin America has revealed a marked differentiation between regions and demonstrated a "genetic continuity" between pre-and post Columbian populations. This study provides the first broad description of how the genome diversity of populations from Latin America has been shaped by the colonial history of the region. The research involved the collaboration of teams at universities across Latin America, the US and Europe, led by Dr. Andres Ruiz-Linares from University College London. ...> Full Article

First study hints at insights to come from genes unique to humans (3/23/2008)

Among the approximately 23,000 genes found in human DNA, scientists currently estimate that there may be as few as 50 to 100 that have no counterparts in other species. Expand that comparison to include the primate family known as hominoids, and there may be several hundred unique genes. ...> Full Article

Gene's 'selective signature' aids detection of natural selection in microbial evolution (3/22/2008)

Microbes, the oldest and most numerous creatures on Earth, have a rich genomic history that offers clues to changes in the environment that have occurred over hundreds of millions of years. ...> Full Article

Finding deep roots, new genome software infers ancestry with high accuracy (3/21/2008)

New genomics analysis software developed by computer scientists at Stanford appears far more adept than prior methods at unraveling the ancestry of individuals. ...> Full Article

Cutting-edge Computing Helps Discover Origin Of Life On Earth (3/20/2008)

Scientists shed light on how life on earth may have originated ...> Full Article

Loss Of Egg Yolk Genes In Mammals And The Origin Of Lactation And Placentation (3/20/2008)

Exploring the genetic changes that led mammals to feed their young via the placenta and with milk, rather then via the egg ...> Full Article

Surprising discovery from first large-scale analysis of biodiversity and biogeography of viruses (3/20/2008)

Modern microbialites may be endemic remnants of ancient ecosystems ...> Full Article