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News tagged with ancestor

Microcephaly genes associated with human brain size

A group of Norwegian and American researchers have shown that common variations in genes associated with microcephaly - a neuro-developmental disorder in which brain size is dramatically reduced - may explain differences ...

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created Dec 21, 2009 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 1

The deciding factor: Empathy distinguishes modern humans from their primate ancestors

(PhysOrg.com) -- What, exactly, distinguishes humans from apes? It’s certainly more than just our genes, renowned anthropologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy told a Harvard audience recently (Nov. 18).

Biology / Other

created Nov 30, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

The Worm That Turned Evolutionary Key

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Keelworm, widespread in the seas and tide-pools around Scotland and the rest of the UK, is unwittingly helping scientists at the University of St Andrews to understand the evolution of modern animals.

Biology / Biotechnology

created Nov 20, 2009 | popularity 3.3 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Extinct moa rewrites New Zealand's history

(PhysOrg.com) -- The evolutionary history of New Zealand's many extinct flightless moa has been re-written in the first comprehensive study of more than 260 sub-fossil specimens to combine all known genetic, ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Nov 18, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (6) | comments 1

Humans, Other Mammals Similarly Voice Frustrations

Pet owners and scientists who spend a lot of time in the wild say that they can tell when an animal is upset by the sound of its voice. Now new analyses of animal calls may offer an explanation; humans seem ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Nov 05, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 1

Ancient Lemurs Take Bite Out of Evolutionary Tree (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- About 40 miles outside Cairo, Egypt, National Science Foundation-supported paleontologists from three American universities are revealing features of a newly discovered African primate and ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Oct 21, 2009 | popularity 3.2 / 5 (6) | comments 0

Two-million-year-old evidence shows tool-making hominins inhabited grassland environments

In an article published in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE on October 21, 2009, Dr Thomas Plummer of Queens College at the City University of New York, Dr Richard Potts of the Smithsonian Institution Nation ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Oct 21, 2009 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Evolution axe goes on display

(PhysOrg.com) -- A flint hand axe that helped reveal the very ancient age of humankind goes on display at the Natural History Museum October 2009.

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Oct 19, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Before 'Lucy,' there was 'Ardi': Oldest hominid skeleton provides new evidence for human evolution (w/ Video)

In a special issue of Science, an international team of scientists has for the first time thoroughly described Ardipithecus ramidus, a hominid species that lived 4.4 million years ago in what is now Ethiop ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Oct 01, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (36) | comments 1

Getting a leg up on whale and dolphin evolution

When the ancestors of living cetaceans—whales, dolphins and porpoises—first dipped their toes into water, a series of evolutionary changes were sparked that ultimately nestled these swimming mammals into the ...

Biology / Evolution

created Sep 24, 2009 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (8) | comments 0

New genetic research indicates Jewish priesthood has multiple lineages

Recent research on the Cohen Y chromosome indicates the Jewish priesthood, the Cohanim, was established by several unrelated male lines rather than a single male lineage dating to ancient Hebrew times.

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created Sep 24, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Research team finds first evolutionary branching for bilateral animals

When it comes to understanding a critical junction in animal evolution, some short, simple flatworms have been a real thorn in scientists' sides. Specialists have jousted over the proper taxonomic placement ...

Biology / Evolution

created Sep 23, 2009 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (5) | comments 0

Researchers Probe Links Between Modern Humans and Neanderthals

Which genes make us uniquely human? Scientists are looking at DNA in old bones to find out. The focus now is not so much on our own species, Homo sapiens. Instead, scientists are probing DNA in well-preserved pieces ...

Biology / Evolution

created Sep 19, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (21) | comments 6

Archaeologists discover oldest-known fiber materials used by early humans

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of archaeologists and paleobiologists has discovered flax fibers that are more than 34,000 years old, making them the oldest fibers known to have been used by humans. The fibers, discovered ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Sep 10, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (11) | comments 3

We are all mutants: Measurement of mutation rate in humans by direct sequencing

An international team of 16 scientists today reports the first direct measurement of the general rate of genetic mutation at individual DNA letters in humans. The team sequenced the same piece of DNA - 10,000,000 or so letters ...

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created Aug 27, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (8) | comments 8