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Canine Tooth Strength Provides Clues To Behavior Of Early Human Ancestors

21:45 26-06-2008; source: www.sciencedaily.com

Measuring and testing the teeth of living primates could provide a window into the behavior of the earliest human ancestors, based on their fossilized remains. New research takes us one step closer to understanding the relationship between canine teeth, body size and the lives of primates.

Huge Genome-scale Phylogenetic Study Of Birds Rewrites Evolutionary Tree-of-life

21:45 26-06-2008; source: www.sciencedaily.com

The largest ever study of bird genetics redraws the avian evolutionary tree, challenges current classifications, alters our understanding of avian evolution, and provides a resource for future studies. Early Bird, centered at the Field Museum, examined DNA from all major living bird groups. Scientists built and analyzed a dataset of more than 32 kilobases of nuclear DNA sequences from 19 locations on the DNA of each of 169 species -- equivalent to a small genome project.

New Fossils Of Extremely Primitive 4-Legged Creatures Close The Gap Between Fish And Land Animals

18:45 26-06-2008; source: www.sciencedaily.com

New exquisitely preserved fossils from Latvia cast light on a key event in our own evolutionary history, when our ancestors left the water and ventured onto land. Scientists have reconstructed parts of the animal and explain the transformation in the new issue of Nature.

Estimation Of Isolation Times In The Drosophila Simulans Complex

21:45 25-06-2008; source: www.sciencedaily.com

The Drosophila simulans species complex continues to serve as an important model system for the study of new species formation. The complex is comprised of the cosmopolitan species, D. simulans, and two island endemics, D. mauritiana and D. sechellia. A substantial amount of effort has gone into reconstructing the natural history of the complex, in part to infer the context in which functional divergence among the species has arisen. Researchers now provide evidence that both island species were isolated at about the same time, estimated at ~250,000 years ago.

Closing The Gap Between Fish And Land Animals

21:45 25-06-2008; source: www.sciencedaily.com

New exquisitely preserved fossils from Latvia cast light on a key event in our own evolutionary history, when our ancestors left the water and ventured onto land. Scientists have reconstructed parts of the animal and explain the transformation in the new issue of Nature.

Pumice As A Time Witness

21:45 24-06-2008; source: www.sciencedaily.com

Chemical fingerprints of volcanic eruptions and numerous pumice lump finds from archaeological excavations illustrate relations between individual advanced civilizations in the Eastern Mediterranean. Thanks to new tests and to the provenancing of the respective pumice samples to partially far-reaching volcanic eruptions, it became possible to redefine a piece of cultural history from the second millenium B.C.