All Articles Tagged As: apes

You Are What You Eat: Some Differences Between Humans And Chimpanzees Traced To Diet (2/1/2008)

Using mice as models, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology traced some of the differences between humans and chimpanzees to differences in our diet. ...> Full Article

Geneticist Uses New Computational Methods to Search for a Neanderthal Legacy and for Disease Genes (1/20/2008)

Each year, Jurassic Park seems less like science fiction. Scientists are decoding woolly mammoth DNA. They also are decoding DNA from an extinct species much closer to us in genetic makeup - the Neanderthal. ...> Full Article

Pinot Noir Grape Sequenced (12/27/2007)

Viticulture, the growing of grapes (Vitis vinifera) chiefly to make wine, is an ancient form of agriculture, evidence of which has been found from the Neolithic and Early Bronze Ages. We have a detailed understanding of how nurture affects the qualities of a grape harvest leading to the concept of terroir (the range of local influences that carry over into a wine). The nature of the grapes themselves has been less well understood but our knowledge of this is substantially increased by the publication of a high quality draft genome sequence of a Pinot Noir grape by an Italian-based multinational consortium. ...> Full Article

Losses Of Long-established Genes Contribute To Human Evolution (12/21/2007)

While it is well understood that the evolution of new genes leads to adaptations that help species survive, gene loss may also afford a selective advantage. A group of scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz led by biomolecular engineering professor David Haussler has investigated this less-studied idea, carrying out the first systematic computational analysis to identify long-established genes that have been lost across millions of years of evolution leading to the human species. ...> Full Article

Ice Ages And Rivers May Have Affected Gorilla Diversification (12/15/2007)

Geography and historical climate change may have both played a major role in gorilla evolutionary diversification, according to a new genetic study by Cardiff University and the University of New Orleans. ...> 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

Gene Mutation Linked To Cognition Is Found Only In Humans (5/10/2007)

The human and chimpanzee genomes vary by just 1.2 percent, yet there is a considerable difference in the mental and linguistic capabilities between the two species. A new study showed that a certain form of neuropsin, a protein that plays a role in learning and memory, is expressed only in the central nervous systems of humans and that it originated less than 5 million years ago. The study, which also demonstrated the molecular mechanism that creates this novel protein, will be published online in Human Mutation, the official journal of the Human Genome Variation Society. ...> Full Article

Man's Earliest Direct Ancestors Looked More Apelike Than Previously Believed (3/29/2007)

First Humans Retained Surprisingly Apelike Features, NYU Study Reveals ...> Full Article