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Categories: Anthropology: Early Humans, Paleontology: Climate

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Anthropology: Cultures Anthropology: Early Humans Anthropology: General
Published

Human evolution wasn't just the sheet music, but how it was played      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A team of researchers has identified a group of human DNA sequences driving changes in brain development, digestion and immunity that seem to have evolved rapidly after our family line split from that of the chimpanzees, but before we split with the Neanderthals.

Anthropology: Early Humans Archaeology: General Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology Paleontology: Fossils
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Footprints claimed as evidence of ice age humans in North America need better dating, new research shows      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The preserved footprints found in New Mexico's Lake Otero Basin would upend scientific understanding of how, and when, humans first arrived in North America, if they are accurately dated. A new study brings the age claim into question.

Anthropology: Early Humans Anthropology: General Archaeology: General Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology
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Oldest evidence of the controlled use of fire to cook food, researchers report      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The remains of a huge carp fish mark the earliest signs of cooking by prehistoric human to 780,000 years ago, predating the available data by some 600,000 years, according to researchers.

Anthropology: Cultures Anthropology: Early Humans Archaeology: General
Published

Ancient DNA analysis sheds light on the early peopling of South America      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Using DNA from two ancient humans unearthed in two different archaeological sites in northeast Brazil, researchers have unraveled the deep demographic history of South America at the regional level with some surprising results. Not only do they provide new genetic evidence supporting existing archaeological data of the north-to-south migration toward South America, they also have discovered migrations in the opposite direction along the Atlantic coast -- for the first time. Among the key findings, they also have discovered evidence of Neanderthal ancestry within the genomes of ancient individuals from South America.

Anthropology: Cultures Anthropology: Early Humans Archaeology: General
Published

Ancient genomes reveal hidden history of human adaptation      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The use of ancient DNA, including samples of human remains around 45,000 years old, has shed light on a previously unknown aspect of human evolution.

Anthropology: Cultures Anthropology: Early Humans Archaeology: General
Published

UK's oldest human DNA obtained, revealing two distinct Palaeolithic populations      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The first genetic data from Palaeolithic human individuals in the UK -- the oldest human DNA obtained from the British Isles so far -- indicates the presence of two distinct groups that migrated to Britain at the end of the last ice age, according to new research. Published today in Nature Ecology and Evolution, the new study by UCL Institute of Archaeology, the Natural History Museum and the Francis Crick Institute researchers reveals for the first time that the recolonisation of Britain consisted of at least two groups with distinct origins and cultures.

Anthropology: Cultures Anthropology: Early Humans Archaeology: General
Published

Meet the first Neanderthal family      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have managed to sequence multiple individuals from a remote Neanderthal community in Siberia. Among these thirteen individuals, the researchers identified multiple related individuals -- among these a father and his teenage daughter. The researchers were also able to use the thirteen genomes to provide a glimpse into the social organization of a Neanderthal community. They appear to have been a small group of close relatives, consisting of ten to twenty members, and communities were primarily connected through female migration.

Anthropology: Early Humans
Published

A new route to evolution: How DNA from our mitochondria works its way into our genomes      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Scientists have shown that in one in every 4,000 births, some of the genetic code from our mitochondria -- the 'batteries' that power our cells -- inserts itself into our DNA, revealing a surprising new insight into how humans evolve. Researchers show that mitochondrial DNA also appears in some cancer DNA, suggesting that it acts as a sticking plaster to try and repair damage to our genetic code.

Anthropology: Early Humans
Published

Dead fish breathes new life into the evolutionary origin of fins and limbs      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A trove of fossils in China, unearthed in rock dating back some 436 million years, have revealed for the first time that the mysterious galeaspids, a jawless freshwater fish, possessed paired fins.

Anthropology: Early Humans Paleontology: Early Mammals and Birds
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Revealing the genome of the common ancestor of all mammals      (via sciencedaily.com) 

An international team has reconstructed the genome organization of the earliest common ancestor of all mammals. The reconstructed ancestral genome could help in understanding the evolution of mammals and in conservation of modern animals. The earliest mammal ancestor likely looked like the fossil animal 'Morganucodon' which lived about 200 million years ago.

Anthropology: Cultures Anthropology: Early Humans
Published

Key phases of human evolution coincide with flickers in eastern Africa's climate      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Interdisciplinary research in southern Ethiopia enabled the deciphering of eastern Africa's climatic heartbeat and shows how key phases of climate change influenced human evolution, dispersal and innovation.

Anthropology: Early Humans
Published

Exposing the evolutionary weak spots of the human genome      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Mutations can drastically help or hurt the odds of an organism surviving and reproducing. Researchers have created a computer program called ExtRaINSIGHT that tracks the history of harmful mutations throughout human evolution. They've discovered several regions of the genome are especially vulnerable to mutations, meaning any mutations there could lead to severe or lethal consequences.

Anthropology: Cultures Anthropology: Early Humans Archaeology: General
Published

The anglo-saxon migration: New insights from genetics      (via sciencedaily.com) 

In the largest early-medieval population study to date, an interdisciplinary team consisting of geneticists and archaeologists analyzed over 400 individuals from ancient Britain, Ireland, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. The results show in detail one of the largest population transformations in the post-Roman world.

Anthropology: Early Humans
Published

Early gibbon fossil found in southwest China: Discovery fills evolutionary history gap of apes      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A team of scientists has discovered the earliest gibbon fossil, a find that helps fill a long-elusive evolutionary gap in the history of apes.

Anthropology: Early Humans
Published

Earliest land animals had fewer skull bones than fish -- restricting their evolution, scientists find      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The skulls of tetrapods had fewer bones than extinct and living fish, limiting their evolution for millions of years, according to a latest study.

Anthropology: Cultures Anthropology: Early Humans
Published

Modern humans generate more brain neurons than Neanderthals      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The question of what makes modern humans unique has long been a driving force for researchers. Comparisons with our closest relatives, the Neanderthals, therefore provide fascinating insights. The increase in brain size, and in neuron production during brain development, are considered to be major factors for the increased cognitive abilities that occurred during human evolution. However, while both Neanderthals and modern humans develop brains of similar size, very little is known about whether modern human and Neanderthal brains may have differed in terms of their neuron production during development. Researchers now show that the modern human variant of the protein TKTL1, which differs by only a single amino acid from the Neanderthal variant, increases one type of brain progenitor cells, called basal radial glia, in the modern human brain.

Anthropology: Early Humans
Published

Resolving the evolutionary history of the closest algal relatives of land plants      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Scientists use genomic data to resolve the phylogeny of zygnematophyte algae and pinpoint several emergences of multicellularity in the closest known relatives of terrestrial plants.

Anthropology: Early Humans
Published

Sahelanthropus, the oldest representative of humanity, was indeed bipedal...but that's not all!      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The modalities and date of emergence of bipedalism remain bitterly debated, in particular because of a small number of very old human fossils. Sahelanthropus tchadensis, discovered in 2001 in Chad, is considered to be the oldest representative of the humankind. The shape of its cranium suggests a bipedal station. The description of three limb bones of Sahelanthropus confirms habitual bipedalism, but not exclusively.

Anthropology: Cultures Anthropology: Early Humans
Published

Study of ancient skulls sheds light on human interbreeding with Neanderthals      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Research has established that there are traces of Neandertal DNA in the genome of modern humans. Now an exploratory study that assessed the facial structure of prehistoric skulls is offering new insights, and supports the hypothesis that much of this interbreeding took place in the Near East -- the region ranging from North Africa to Iraq.

Anthropology: Early Humans
Published

No, the human brain did not shrink 3,000 years ago      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Did the 12th century B.C.E. -- a time when humans were forging great empires and developing new forms of written text -- coincide with an evolutionary reduction in brain size? Think again, says a team of researchers whose new paper refutes a hypothesis that's growing increasingly popular among the science community.