All, Old news, new research, enjoy! Review: Ryosuke Motani: Warm-Blooded "Sea Dragons"? Science 11 June 2010: 1361-1362 http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/328/5984/1361 Article: Aurélien Bernard, Christophe Lécuyer, Peggy Vincent, Romain Amiot, Nathalie Bardet,Eric Buffetaut, Gilles Cuny, François Fourel, François Martineau, Jean-Michel Mazin, Abel Prieur: Regulation of Body Temperature by Some Mesozoic Marine Reptiles http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/328/5984/1379 Abstract: "What the body temperature and thermoregulation processes of extinct vertebrates were are central questions for understanding their ecology and evolution. The thermophysiologic status of the great marine reptiles is still unknown, even though some studies have suggested that thermoregulation may have contributed to their exceptional evolutionary success as apex predators of Mesozoic aquatic ecosystems. We tested the thermal status of ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs by comparing the oxygen isotope compositions of their tooth phosphate to those of coexisting fish. Data distribution reveals that these large marine reptiles were able to maintain a constant and high body temperature in oceanic environments ranging from tropical to cold temperate. Their estimated body temperatures, in the range from 35° ± 2°C to 39° ± 2°C, suggest high metabolic rates required for predation and fast swimming over large distances offshore." --Mikko
Category Archives: News
Artefacts hint at earliest Neanderthals in Britain
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10206677.stm
Oldest Human Species Found: May Have Been Cannibal?
Human Ancestor’s Ancient Home Debated
For New debates about Ardipithecus:
http://www.livescience.com/history/ardi-human-ancestor-hominid-debate-100527.html
Comment on the Paleoenvironment of Ardipithecus:
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/328/5982/1105-d.pdf
Response to Comment on the Paleoenvironment of Ardipithecus ramidus:
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/328/5982/1105-e.pdf
Comment on the Paleobiology and Classification of Ardipithecus ramidus:
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/328/5982/1105-b.pdf
Response to Comment on the Paleobiology and Classification of Ardipithecus ramidus:
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/328/5982/1105-c.pdf
The fellowship of the hobbit
The fellowship of the hobbit: the fauna surrounding Homo floresiensis
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/123378314/abstract
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Jussi Eronen
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
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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
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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
New extant rhino species discovered!
…except that it’s not really “new”, just a former subspecies elevated to full species
rank. Anyway, say hello to Ceratotherium cottoni:
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0009703
Henry