Beyond bones & stones
Razib found this really fascinating paper which compares differences in gene expression between populations. The results of the study has been published in an open access paper in the American Journal of Human Genetics. The paper is titled, "Evaluation of Genetic Variation Contributing to Differences in Gene Expression between Populations," and comes from researchers in... Continue Reading →
So there's this hypotheses that Neandertal extinction was due to cannibalism. This is an alternative but complementary hypothesis to the climate change one. In an upcoming paper in Medical Hypotheses, Simon Underdown investigates this hypotheses by looking at Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs). The paper is titled, "A potential role for Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies in Neanderthal... Continue Reading →
I remember reading the announcement of Sahelanthropus tchadensis (a.k.a. Toumaï) in 2002. It was an exciting time. A cranium is hard to find and is a quite noteworthy for any early hominid. So, it wasn't surprising that Nature published the findings, "A new hominid from the Upper Miocene of Chad, Central Africa." But they did... Continue Reading →
The question answering (QA) research group at Carnegie Mellon University has recently released an open source version of their Ephyra Question and Answer System. The software utilizes the internet to answer linguistic questions as well as recognize syntax, word ordering, and tone, using a series of algorithms to produce the most context-appropriate and statistically correct... Continue Reading →
I know Razib and I are both interested in how skin color is determined. Many different genetic loci have been identified as factors in the skin pigmentation biochemical pathway. It can be a mysterious task, but often all it takes is homology in sequences to clue investigators into considering a new loci as a possible... Continue Reading →
Couple weeks ago we saw how stable isotope analysis was used in a paleoanthropological context, with a Neandertal tooth. A new study published in this week's issue of PNAS, extends stable isotope analysis from bones to hair -- and this time instead of looking at strontium, a metal, hydrogen and oxygen isotopes were screened. Here's... Continue Reading →
As will be apparent from the headline, the latest edition of the anthropology blog carnival Four Stone Hearth has hit the cyber-stands, courtesy of Archaeoporn, so be sure to head on over, as there is a very good variety of submissions, s0me of which are from blogs that may not be immediately familiar to regular... Continue Reading →
In last week's issue of Nature, we saw two really important papers on large scale human population genetic structure be published. The first was, "Proportionally more deleterious genetic variation in European than in African populations," and the second was, "Genotype, haplotype and copy-number variation in worldwide human populations." Not to be outdone by Nature, Science... Continue Reading →
The next edition of the anthropology blog carnival, Four Stone Hearth will be appearing this coming Wednesday, February 27th, over at Archaeoporn, so if you'd like to send something along, here's the link - submit@fourstonehearth.net
One more from Molecular Biology and Evolution, this time investigating whether or not diversity seen in 280 bases of mtDNA from 886 people from 27 indigenous Americans is localized amongst populations. Or in other words, is the diversity seen in this short segment of mtDNA random or unique to groups? The paper, "Native South American... Continue Reading →
