Cool paper by Marcelo Sanchez-Villagra and colleagues.
Mammalian skull heterochrony reveals modular evolution and a link between cranial development and brain size
Cool paper by Marcelo Sanchez-Villagra and colleagues.
Mammalian skull heterochrony reveals modular evolution and a link between cranial development and brain size
We are glad to inform that the
Festschrift in Honor of Mikael Fortelius has now been published in the latest online issue of Annales Zoologici Fennici vol. 51(1-2) (open access). Please visit http://www.annzool.net/. Printed version will be in distribution as of 7 April 2014.Managing editor
and
Anu, Jussi, Jukka, Pirkko and Suvi
Scientists have discovered a freakish, birdlike species of dinosaur — 11 feet long, 500 pounds, with a beak, no teeth, a bony crest atop its head, murderous claws, prize-fighter arms, spindly legs, a thin tail and feathers sprouting all over the place. Officially, it’s a member of a group of dinosaurs called oviraptorosaurs.
Unofficially, it’s the Chicken From Hell.
A New Large-Bodied Oviraptorosaurian Theropod Dinosaur from the Latest Cretaceous of Western North America
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Laura
Hi all,
The departmental seminar this week after the department coffee:
Thursday 13.3. at 14.30 in C108 (Physicum)
Minna Väliranta (Environmental Change Research Unit (ECRU), Dept.of Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki) “Quantitative climate reconstructions derived from plant macrofossils”
All are welcome!
Paper about this should appear on the JVP website later today…
Newly identified dinosaur fauna sheds light on evolution
Recognition of the 160 million year old Daohugou Biota has huge scientific potential
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Laura
Departmental seminar series TODAY at 14.00 in C108 (Physicum):
Dr. BJÖRN KRÖGER (Curator, Geological museum, Helsinki University): The
evolution of reefs during the Ordovician of Baltoscandia
All are welcome!
Anu
Now we know the true colours (I had hoped for something a bit more exciting perhaps
Skin pigmentation provides evidence of convergent melanism in extinct marine reptiles
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature12899.html
Nice reconstructions here:
http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/science-color-mosasaurs-ichthyosaurs-turtles-1672.html
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Laura
A Nature/Science pair of papers on Neanderthal genetics!
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jan/29/fifth-neanderthals-genetic-code-lives-on-humans
Links in there to the papers, but the summary is:
– One paper suggests that while modern humans have few Neanderthal genes individually, up to 20% of the species genome collectively is actually composed of Neanderthal genes.
– The second looks instead at different regions of the modern human genome and the relative Neanderthal influence on these. This is highly variable, with some areas heavily influenced and others not at all. Keratin is one of the heavily influenced areas, so links to skin, hair etc. The X chromosome is almost devoid of Neanderthal influence, suggesting that hybrid males would have been partly or wholly infertile – only some 36 years after Bjorn Kurten suggested exactly this with his ‘Children of the Gods’!
– Ian
Luonto lähellä tutustuu palaneisiin eläinten luihin, joita löydetään arkeologisten kaivausten tuloksena.
http://areena.yle.fi/tv/2140661
Luonto lähellä tutustuu muinaisiin luulöytöihin ja eläinten leviämiseen Suomeen jääkauden jälkeen.
http://areena.yle.fi/tv/2131178
Walk in the footsteps of the woolly mammoths at the National Museum of Scotland
http://www.nms.ac.uk/our_museums/national_museum/exhibitions/mammoths_of_the_ice_age.aspx
Journey back in time hundreds of thousands of years and discover the animals of the ice age at the first UK showing of this interactive, family-friendly exhibition. Joust with mammoth tusks, find out what mammoth fur feels like and touch the replica teeth of a colossal mastodon. Then meet Lyuba, an exact replica of a 42,000-year-old baby woolly mammoth, and learn why early humans both hunted and honoured these majestic animals.
A bit far to go to physically, but the webpage is very nice and interactive, especially this game:
-Laura