Genetic Archaeology News - April 2008 Archives

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