Author Archives: LS
Special lecture in Paleontology on 26.5
The fellowship of the hobbit
The fellowship of the hobbit: the fauna surrounding Homo floresiensis
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/123378314/abstract
—
Jussi Eronen
Kurtén Club 11.5.
Dear all,
tomorrow, Suvi Viranta-Kovanen will give a talk about
These feet were made for walking
– cursorial adaptations in the human foot
Time & Loc.:
16.00, 11.5.2010, C108 (Physicum)
Welcome,
Allu
Neandertal genome sequenced!
Science 7 May 2010:
Vol. 328. no. 5979, pp. 710 – 722
A Draft Sequence of the Neandertal Genome
Richard E. Green et al.
Neandertals, the closest evolutionary relatives of present-day humans, lived in large parts of Europe and western Asia before disappearing 30,000 years ago. We present a draft sequence of the Neandertal genome composed of more than 4 billion nucleotides from three individuals. Comparisons of the Neandertal genome to the genomes of five present-day humans from different parts of the world identify a number of genomic regions that may have been affected by positive selection in ancestral modern humans, including genes involved in metabolism and in cognitive and skeletal development. We show that Neandertals shared more genetic variants with present-day humans in Eurasia than with present-day humans in sub-Saharan Africa, suggesting that gene flow from Neandertals into the ancestors of non-Africans occurred before the divergence of Eurasian groups from each other.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/328/5979/710
____________________________________
Laura K. Säilä, PhD
The grolarbear
To make a follow-up on the polar bear article, here is something rather interesting : a polar/grizzly hybrid
Sorry, in Danish or Greenlandic only…
http://www.knr.gl/index.php?id=183&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=55794&tx_ttnews[backPid]=143&cHash=d1e106fcc8
—
Pierre Mauriès
Woolly mammoth antifreeze!
All over the internet today! – Laura
Substitutions in woolly mammoth hemoglobin confer biochemical properties adaptive for cold tolerance
We have genetically retrieved, resurrected and performed detailed structure-function analyses on authentic woolly mammoth hemoglobin to reveal for the first time both the evolutionary origins and the structural underpinnings of a key adaptive physiochemical trait in an extinct species. Hemoglobin binds and carries O2; however, its ability to offload O2 to respiring cells is hampered at low temperatures, as heme deoxygenation is inherently endothermic (that is, hemoglobin-O2 affinity increases as temperature decreases). We identify amino acid substitutions with large phenotypic effect on the chimeric b/d-globin subunit of mammoth hemoglobin that provide a unique solution to this problem and thereby minimize energetically costly heat loss. This biochemical specialization may have been involved in the exploitation of high-latitude environments by this African-derived elephantid lineage during the Pleistocene period. This powerful new approach to directly analyze the genetic and structural basis of physiological adaptations in an extinct species adds an important new dimension to the study of natural selection.
http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/ng.574.html#/
Neanderthals may have interbred with humans
Kurtén Club 6.5.2010 FMNH
Dear all,
next Tuesday we will not have our normal meeting. Instead, we are going to the Finnish Museum of Natural History on Thursday 6.5.2010 to see the new exhibition,
Nature of the World
http://www.fmnh.helsinki.fi/ltm/pysyvat/maailma.htm
We’ll meet in the lobby 16.00 (free entrance).
Time & Loc.:
16.00(-18.00), 6.5.2010 (THURSDAY), FMNH lobby
Welcome,
Allu
Kurtén Club 27.4.
Dear all,
today, Majid Mirzaie Ataabadi will give a talk about
The Miocene of Western Asia; fossil mammals at the crossroad of faunal provinces and climate regimes
Time & Loc.:
16.00, 27.4.2010, C108 (Physicum)
Welcome,
Allu