Genetic Archaeology News Archives Page 17

Bomb Lance Found In Neck Of Large Bowhead Whale In Alaska (6/15/2007)

A nineteenth century bomb lance fragment, similar to lances manufactured in New Bedford, was found in a large bowhead whale in Barrow, Alaska, suggesting the whale was struck by the fragment around 1890. ...> Full Article

Important Secret In Gene Replication Uncovered (6/15/2007)

A team of researchers led by University of Virginia Health System geneticists has uncovered a major secret in the mystery of how the DNA helix replicates itself time after time. It turns out that it is not just the sequence of the bases (building blocks) in the DNA, but also how loosely or tightly the chromatin (the material that makes up chromosomes) is packed at different points of the chromosome that is critical. ...> Full Article

CT Scan Reveals Ancient Long-Necked Gliding Reptile (6/14/2007)

The fossilized bones of a previously unknown, 220 million-year-old long-necked, gliding reptile may remain forever embedded in stone, but thanks to an industrial-size CT scanner at Penn State's Center for Quantitative Imaging, the bone structure and behavior of these small creatures are now known. ...> Full Article

Physicist Cracks Women's Random But Always Lucky Choice Of X Chromosome (6/14/2007)

A University of Warwick physicist has uncovered how female cells are able to choose randomly between their two X chromosomes and why that choice is always lucky. ...> Full Article

Scientists Propose The Kind Of Chemistry That Led To Life (6/13/2007)

Before life emerged on earth, either a primitive kind of metabolism or an RNA-like duplicating machinery must have set the stage - so experts believe. But what preceded these pre-life steps? ...> Full Article

Lizard Mothers Control The Patterning Of Skin In Children (6/13/2007)

Mothers know best when it comes to dressing their children, at least among side-blotched lizards, a common species in the western United States. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have found that female side-blotched lizards are able to induce different color patterns in their offspring in response to social cues, "dressing" their progeny in patterns they will wear for the rest of their lives. ...> Full Article

Medaka Fish Genome Completed (6/13/2007)

The medaka fish (Oryzias latipes), a popular pet in Japan and model organism in the laboratory, has had its genome sequenced. The data, reported in this week's Nature, offer novel insights into vertebrate genome evolution. ...> Full Article

Volcanic Eruptions Preserve Ancient History (6/12/2007)

Case assistant professor harvests the fossilized bones of animals from South America ...> Full Article

Agonized Pose Tells Of Dinosaur Death Throes (6/12/2007)

The peculiar pose of many fossilized dinosaurs, with wide-open mouth, head thrown back and recurved tail, likely resulted from the agonized death throes typical of brain damage and asphyxiation, according to two paleontologists. ...> Full Article

Caribbean Frogs Started With A Single, Ancient Voyage On Raft From South America (6/11/2007)

Nearly all of the 162 land-breeding frog species on Caribbean islands, including the coqui frogs of Puerto Rico, originated from a single frog species that rafted on a sea voyage from South America about 30 million to 50 million years ago, according to DNA-sequence analyses led by a research group at Penn State ...> Full Article

Ancient DNA Traces The Woolly Mammoth's Disappearance (6/11/2007)

Some ancient-DNA evidence has offered new clues to a very cold case: the disappearance of the last woolly mammoths, one of the most iconic of all Ice Age giants, according to a recent article. DNA lifted from the bones, teeth, and tusks of the extinct mammoths revealed a "genetic signature" of a range expansion after the last interglacial period. After the mammoths' migration, the population apparently leveled off, and one of two lineages died out. ...> Full Article

Scientists Discover Five New Species Of Sea Slugs From The Tropical Eastern Pacific (6/11/2007)

Scientist from the US and Mexico discover and research 5 new species of sea slugs in Panama's Gulf of Chiriqui. ...> Full Article

Study Helps Preserve Arctic Whale And Eskimo Subsistence Hunt (6/10/2007)

Research on one of the oldest-living mammals - the bowhead whale - has helped preserve a primary food source for Eskimos in the far reaches of Alaska, and also may provide a useful tool for studying genetic variation in other migratory animals. ...> Full Article

Scientists Discover Unique New T Cell Receptor In Marsupial Research (6/10/2007)

Opossums are soft and furry, cute and cuddly looking and they could open up a new way in which critical cell types in the immune system called T cells, may be seeing pathogens based on new genome sequencing research involving scientists in the University of New Mexico's Biology department. The research, which is funded largely by the National Science Foundation, is set to be released in the June issue of the magazine PNAS, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ...> Full Article

Mystery Of 5,000 Year Old Glacier Mummy Solved (6/10/2007)

An Italian-Swiss research team, including Dr. Frank Rühli of the Institute of Anatomy at the University of Zurich in Switzerland proved the cause of death of the Iceman ("Ötzi," 3300 BC) by modern X-ray-based technology. A lesion of a close-to-the-shoulder artery has been found thanks to a CT scan or multislice computed tomography, finally clarifying the world-famous glacier mummy's cause of death. ...> Full Article

Genetic Diversity Increases Horn Size And Reproductive Success (6/9/2007)

Size matters. At least, it does to an alpine ibex. ...> Full Article

Discovery Of Oldest Human Decorations – Thought To Be 82,000 Years Old (6/9/2007)

Archaeologists have discovered shell beads believed to be 82,000 years old - making them the oldest dated human decorations. These finds of handmade beads, in a limestone cave in Morocco, suggest that humans were fashioning purely symbolic objects in Africa 40,000 years before they did it in Europe. A paper on the discovery is published in this month's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ...> Full Article

Chimps Learn 'Local Customs' (6/9/2007)

Chimpanzee communities can acquire their own local customs and maintain their own 'multiple-tradition cultures', according to researchers at the University of St Andrews. ...> Full Article

Birds, Bees, and Moths Drive Flower Evolution (6/9/2007)

Flowers evolve in a predictable fashion to match the mouthparts of pollinating birds and insects, rather than engaging in a gradual "arms race" between flower and pollinator, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Davis and the University of California, Santa Barbara. An article describing the study is published in the June 7 issue of the journal Nature. ...> Full Article

Origins of Nervous System Found in Genes of Sea Sponge (6/8/2007)

Scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara have discovered significant clues to the evolutionary origins of the nervous system by studying the genome of a sea sponge, a member of a group considered to be among the most ancient of all animals. ...> Full Article

Company Announces Early-Access Program For Its Next-Generation Sequencing Platform (6/8/2007)

Applied Biosystems (NYSE:ABI), an Applera Corporation business, today announced the launch of the early-access program for its next-generation DNA sequencing system. The company said that it has shipped initial units of its SOLiD™ System to leading research institutions that include Stanford University, and has begun accepting orders from other customers. ...> Full Article

What Did Dinosaurs Hear? (6/8/2007)

What did dinosaurs hear? Probably a lot of low frequency sounds, like the heavy footsteps of another dinosaur, if University of Maryland professor Robert Dooling and his colleagues are right. What they likely couldn't hear were the high pitched sounds that birds make. ...> Full Article

Climate Change Linked To Origins Of Agriculture In Mexico (6/7/2007)

New charcoal and plant microfossil evidence from Mexico's Central Balsas valley links a pivotal cultural shift, crop domestication in the New World, to local and regional environmental history. Agriculture in the Balsas valley originated and diversified during the warm, wet, postglacial period following the much cooler and drier climate in the final phases of the last ice age. A significant dry period appears to have occurred at the same time as the major dry episode associated with the collapse of Mayan civilization, Smithsonian researchers and colleagues report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences online. ...> Full Article

Preserving Library Of Congress Treasures Is Goal Of Researcher (6/7/2007)

With more than 134 million items in its collection, the Library of Congress has no shortage of reading materials. This summer, a Florida State University chemist will use his knowledge of cellulose, a key component of paper, to help the world's largest library find ways to preserve its vast treasure trove of books, manuscripts, maps, newspapers and pamphlets, many irreplaceable. ...> Full Article

Study Reveals Primates, and Their Neurons, in the Act of Reasoning (6/6/2007)

Every day humans make thousands of decisions, small and large, based on the information at hand and their assessment of the potential outcome of those choices. ...> Full Article

Polynesians Discovered America 100 Years Before Columbus (6/5/2007)

Prehistoric Polynesians, not European voyagers, may have brought chickens to the Americas, according to new research from The University of Auckland's Department of Anthropology which will be published in the prestigious journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). ...> Full Article

Volcano In Siberia Caused The Greatest Mass Extinction Event Of All Time (6/5/2007)

Scientists from the Universities of Sheffield and Cambridge have discovered that Mother Nature caused a massive ozone depletion event, some 251 million years ago, during the greatest mass extinction event of all time. ...> Full Article

Salmon Parasite Identity Finally Revealed (6/4/2007)

Scientists from the Tasmanian Aquaculture and Fisheries Institute (TAFI) at the University of Tasmania have made an unexpected discovery that has rewritten 20 years of research. They have identified a new species of parasitic amoeba as the cause of a familiar problem troubling Atlantis salmon aquaculture in Tasmania. ...> Full Article

Human Ancestors Learnt to Walk Upright in the Trees (6/3/2007)

cientists at the University of Liverpool have found that humans' ability to walk upright developed from ancestors foraging for food in forest tree tops and not from walking on all fours on open land. ...> Full Article

Anthropologist Discovers Ancient Tomb In Honduras (6/3/2007)

Colgate anthropology professor Allan Maca and a team of researchers have found a previously unknown tomb in Copán, Honduras, dating back to the 7th century A.D. that contained the skeleton of an elite member of ancient Maya society in the city. ...> Full Article