Team in Germany maps Neanderthal genome
Researchers in Germany have completed the first draft of the Neanderthal genome, 3 billion genetic building blocks that will shed new light on the ancient hominid as well as the origins of its closest relation — humans. The team teased enough DNA out of three 38,000-year-old bone fragments to isolate some 3 billion DNA base pairs. The Neanderthal genome contains roughly 3.2 billion pairs, but many of lead scientist Svante Paabo are repeats, meaning his draft is about 63 percent complete.
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New Alaskan Ichthyosaur Unveiled
The University of Alaska Museum of the North has unveiled what officials call one of the largest, oldest and northernmost marine reptile fossils ever found.
Officials say the fossil sat in the Brooks Range for almost 210 million years before it was discovered in 1950, eventually arriving in Fairbanks.
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Humans got crabs from gorillas!
Just as humans and gorillas share a common evolutionary ancestry, the pubic lice that infuriate some members of the two species are also related. Pubic lice–known to scientists as Pthirus pubis and to most other people as “crabs”–are thought to have evolved from Pthirus gorillae, the structurally similar species that infests gorillas. Genetic analysis by David Reed at the University of Florida indicates that the lice lineages split about 3.3 million years ago, whereas it is believed that humans diverged from gorillas at least 7 million years ago. This suggests that “early humans somehow caught pubic lice from their gorilla cousins.”
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