Tag Archives: Evolution

The Adams and Eves…of Domesticated Cows?

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The history of cattle appears to be reaching a turning point. Did you know that quite possibly every single cow in the world (1.3 billion!) is related to a small group of just 80 domesticated cows who lived about 10,500 years ago?

History of Cattle – The Adams and Eves of Domesticated Cows?

If not for ancient Turkish farmers, cows might’ve never achieved the population levels they enjoy today. Here’s more on the strange history of cattle from Oxford Journals:

“The management and subsequent domestication of these few wild cattle over some centuries could have been carried out by a small sized human group, like in a couple of small Neolithic villages. Importantly, the two sites showing the earliest signs of wild aurochs domestication – Dja´de and Çayönü – are less than 250 km apart. The closeness of these sites permits local exchange of wild / early domestic cattle management skills, and possibly the cattle themselves, and adds support to the hypothesis of a restricted origin of taurine cattle in the Levant.” ~ Ruth Bollongino, Joachim Burger, Adam Powell, Marjan Mashkour, Jean-Denis Vigne, Mark G. Thomas

And here’s even more on the history of cattle from io9:

They discovered that the differences between these ancient DNA sequences and those of modern cattle were so minute that the only way to explain them would be if the original cattle population was extremely small, with about 80 cattle the most likely number. As the researchers explain in Molecular Biology and Evolution, since the domestication process was spread out over a thousand or so years, that’s the equivalent of only adding two new cattle each generation.

That’s a recipe for astoundingly low genetic diversity — and yet it seems that pretty much every living cow can claim ancestry to those eighty cows and no others. It’s a testament to how skilled ancient humans must have been at breeding cattle that the population survived and thrived the way it did, as these cows were effectively domesticated into an instant population bottleneck…

(See io9 for more on the history of cattle)

Piltdown Man: The Fraudulent Missing Link?

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On December 18, 1912, Charles Dawson and Arthur Smith Woodward announced the discovery of mysterious bone fragments at a meeting of the Geological Society of London. These fragments, which included part of a skull and a jawbone, seemed to prove the existence of a previously unknown human species with chimpanzee-like features. In other words, the Missing Link. What was Piltdown Man?

The Piltdown Man Hoax?

The discovery of the so-called Piltdown Man was greeting with frenzied excitement and some skepticism. But it would take another 41 years before scientists were able to uncover the dark truth about Piltdown Man.

In 1953, Kenneth Page Oakley, Sir Wilfrid Edward Le Gros Clark, and Joseph Weiner used modern chemistry to shed new light on Piltdown Man. In the process, they exposed perhaps the greatest paleontological hoax of all time…Piltdown Man was a fake.

Until that point, researchers believed Piltdown Man had lived 750,000-950,000 years ago. However, fluorine testing showed the bone fragments actually came from three different creatures. The skull was human and just 600 years old. The jaw was 500 years old and came from an orangutan. And the teeth had belonged to a chimpanzee.

The hoax quickly unraveled. The fragments had been treated with chemicals to create the impression of age. Also, someone had filed down the teeth and deliberately removed parts from the fragments to confuse scholars.

Who was behind the Piltdown Man Hoax?

So who perpetrated the hoax? And why? Over the years, historians have pointed the finger at a number of individuals. Even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes fame has found himself a suspect. However, most people believe the hoax was originated by none other than the discoverer, Charles Dawson himself.

It turns out Dawson had the bad habit of forging other archaeological finds years before Piltdown Man. His personal collection included at least 38 fakes, some of which showed filed-down teeth. He deliberately aged flints with chemicals. And his written work included numerous examples of plagiarism. In short, Dawson had the means to perpetrate the archaeological hoax.

“Piltdown was not a “one-off” hoax, more the culmination of a life’s work.” ~ Miles Russell, Charles Dawson: ‘The Piltdown faker’

Guerrilla Explorer’s Analysis

As for motive, Dawson once wrote to a friend that he was “waiting for the big ‘find’ which never seems to come along.” This, along with his penchant for creating bizarre fossils and passing them off as real, would seem to imply he was driven by a desire for fame. Finally, Dawson had the best opportunity. Apparently, he was the only person present for the various discoveries of Piltdown fossils over the years. And all such discoveries ceased after his death in 1916.

A New Human Species…in China?

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As early as 11,500 years ago, a strange group of people lived in China’s Red Deer Cave and Longlin Cave.

The Mysterious Red Deer Cave People?

These people, referred to as the Red Deer Cave people, are believed to be a separate species of Homo – possibly the last such species on Earth, next to modern man. Here’s more from New Scientist on the Red Deer Cave people:

And so it begins. For years, evolutionary biologists have predicted that new human species would start popping up in Asia as we begin to look closely at fossilised bones found there. A new analysis of bones from south-west China suggests there’s truth to the forecast.

…What’s more, Curnoe and Ji Xueping of Yunnan University, China, have found more evidence of the new hominin at a second site – Malu cave in Yunnan Province. Curnoe has dubbed the new group the Red Deer Cave people because of their penchant for venison. “There is evidence that they cooked large deer in Malu cave,” he says.

(See New Scientist for more on the Red Deer Cave people)

“Extinct” Insect: Back from the Dead!

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In 1920, the last of the “tree lobster” insects seemingly vanished into the dustbin of history. However, unbeknownst to modern science, a small colony of these hand-sized insects managed to survive…on an 1,844 foot tall rock pyramid…in the middle of the Pacific Ocean!

Ball’s Pyramid: The Home of the Last Tree Lobsters?

This isolated rock pyramid is known as Ball’s Pyramid. It is 1,844 feet high and resides in the Pacific Ocean. The nearest populated island is Lord Howe’s Island, which is about 12 miles away. The fact that a couple of hardy Tree Lobster insects managed to reach such an isolated place is incredible.

Anyway, scientists recovered a few of the insects and started to breed them. And just like that, the population exploded from 24 to more than 12,000. Here’s more on the Tree Lobster insects at Ball’s Pyramid from The Daily Mail:

A narrow and forbidding rock that stands higher than the Empire State Building, it does not look like the most welcoming place to set up home.

But that did not stop an insect which was thought to be extinct for 80 years from building its last known colony on the 1,844ft high Ball’s Pyramid.

Scientists have discovered 24 of the creatures living 500ft above the South Pacific Ocean around the single plant that had survived on the rock.

(See The Daily Mail for more on Ball’s Pyramid and the Tree Lobster insects)

The Key to Immortality?

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Flatworms have the ability to regenerate seemingly forever. Could they hold the key to human immortality?

Do Flatworms hold the Keys to Immortality?

Here’s more on flatworms and immortality from The Telegraph:

Experts from Nottingham University managed to create a colony of more than 20,000 flatworms from one original by chopping it into pieces and observing each section grow into a new complete worm…

“Our data satisfy one of the predictions about what it would take for an animal to be potentially immortal,” Aziz Aboobaker, who led the research. “The next goals for us are to understand the mechanisms in more detail and to understand more about how you evolve an immortal animal.”…

(See Flatworms could hold key to immortality for the rest)

Darwin’s Lost Fossils?

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In 1847, famed botanist Joseph Hooker set out on an expedition to the Himalayas. While he was gone, his fossil collection – including pieces found by Charles Darwin during his famous Beagle voyage – vanished. What happened to them?

The Lost Fossils of Charles Darwin?

The lost fossils of Charles Darwin have been missing for more than 160 years. Now, they’ve been found. Here’s more on the lost fossils of Charles Darwin from the BBC:

A “treasure trove” of fossils – including some collected by Charles Darwin – has been re-discovered in an old cabinet. The fossils, lost for some 165 years, were found by chance in the vaults of the British Geological Survey HQ near Keyworth, UK…

…Dr Falcon-Lang, who is based in the department of earth sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London, spotted some drawers in a cabinet marked “unregistered fossil plants”. “Inside the drawer were hundreds of beautiful glass slides made by polishing fossil plants into thin translucent sheets,”…

(See the rest on Darwin’s fossils at the BBC)

What is the Oldest Human Fossil?

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Scholars generally agree that anatomically modern humans first appeared in Africa about 200,000 years ago. But do human fossils go back that far?

What is the Oldest Human Fossil?

In truth, the fossil record doesn’t exact support the so-called “Out of Africa” theory. In fact, its quite skimpy in this regard. Complicating this is the fact that many older human fossils show traits from both humans as well as more primitive members of the Homo genus. This could mean the earliest Homo Sapiens possessed a wide variety of physical traits. Or it could mean the seemingly human fossils in question belong to some other hominid altogether. With that said, here’s more from the Smithsonian on the earliest known human fossil (which predates the Skhul human fossil shown above by about 100,000 years).

Omo I and II (195,000 years ago): In 1967, a team led by Richard Leakey discovered possible Homo sapiens fossils in the Kibish Formation near the Omo River in southern Ethiopia. Originally the fossils, Omo I (a partial skull and skeleton) and Omo II (a partial skull), were thought to be 130,000 years old, but a dating reanalysis in 2005 revealed they were much older—195,000 years old, making them the oldest fossils assigned to Homo sapiens. Over the last 45 years, the species status of the fossils has been debated. Researchers largely agree Omo I was a modern human; it had the human hallmarks of a flat face, fully formed chin, high forehead and globular braincase. They are less certain about Omo II, which was more primitive with its thicker, more “rugged” cranial bones and sloped forehead. While some paleoanthropologists say Omo II is too archaic to be one of us, others suggest it’s evidence of the great physical diversity of early modern humans…

(See Smithsonian.com for more on other early human fossils)

Medical Secrets of the Ancients?

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Modern antibiotics work by attacking specific parts of pathogens. While this works in most cases, some pathogens merely develop resistance to the antibiotics. Recently, biologists developed an innovative and promising way to combat these terrifying “superbugs.” Can ancient secrets of the medical world save lives today?

Evolutionary Arms Race: Superbugs versus Antibiotics

Superbugs present a steep challenge to modern medicine. Through a process of evolution, they learn how to defend themselves. This leads to a sort of “evolutionary arms race” with the superbugs on one side and antibiotics and adaptive immune systems on the other.

Now, a team of biologists from the Victoria Department of Primary Industries have proposed a new method for battling superbugs. They want to utilize ancient secrets. In other words, they wants to make use of molecules from the strongest “innate immune systems” found in nature. Innate immune systems, which are considered “an evolutionarily older defense strategy,” defend against infection in a more generic way than antibiotics or the adaptive immune system.

“The molecules of the innate immune system use simple chemistry to target the lipids in cell membranes. They can either disrupt and weaken bacterial membranes, or subtly alter the properties of the host’s healthy cells so that pathogens can no longer attack them.” ~ Wendy Zukerman, New Scientist

Unfortunately, the animals that tend to possess the strongest innate immune systems are only distantly related to humans. Thus, their molecules would most likely prove toxic if introduced into people.

Ancient Secrets of…Wallabies?

So, a team of researchers led by Professor Ben Cocks have focused their efforts solely on mammals. One promising candidate is the wallaby. A baby wallaby lacks an adaptive immune system. Worse, it lives in its mother’s pouch, which is filled with “bacteria closely related to the superbugs affecting humans in hospitals.” But thanks to their innate immune systems, they manage to survive and thrive nonetheless.

The wallaby innate immune system contains numerous cathelicidin peptides that appear effective in battling superbugs without causing toxicity to humans. The research team discovered that five of these peptides may have evolved from a single ancestral peptide. Working backwards, they managed to reproduce an ancient secret…the original peptide. This “resurrected” peptide has not been seen since the djarthia, a distant wallaby ancestor, roamed the Earth some 59 million years ago.

Guerrilla Explorer’s Analysis

59 million years? That’s definitely an ancient secret. In fact, it’s just a couple of million years younger than the dinosaurs! And since this extinct peptide has been out of commission for so long, any resistance built up by bacteria has probably been long forgotten. So, it’s no surprise that the ancient peptide appears amazingly effective and broad-based.

“Lab tests showed it destroyed six of seven multidrug-resistant bacteria, and was 10 to 30 times more potent than modern antibiotics such as tetracycline.” ~ Wendy Zukerman, New Scientist

Going forward, Cocks hopes to use computers and synthetic biology to recreate even more therapeutics from ancient mammals. For the time being, this new peptide will most likely be used to battle mastitis, a serious problem in the dairy industry. But someday soon, this ancient secret may enable humanity to overcome a wide variety of superbugs.

The New Missing Link?

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In 2010, archaeologists discovered the first fossils of Australopithecus sediba, a human-like species that lived in Africa about 1.9 million years ago. Now, extensive analysis shows that these fossils don’t belong to just any old extinct hominids…they might actually represent a direct link in the evolutionary chain of humanity. In other words, a missing link.

The Missing “Missing Link”?

It’s commonly thought that early humans and chimpanzees parted evolutionary ways about five to seven million years ago. The genus Homo proceeded to evolve even further, leading to numerous species and subspecies. Through a process of extinction and introgression, all of these other creatures eventually disappeared, leaving modern man as the sole surviving members of the Homo genus.

But the exact path of human evolution remains a mystery, due to the difficulty in locating ancient transitional fossils (aka missing links). However, its generally accepted that modern humans can trace their lineage back to Homo Erectus, which may have been the first hominid to leave Africa. The ancestors to Homo Erectus are less certain, with scientists taking sides among numerous candidates.

Is Australopithecus Sediba a Missing Link?

In 2010, a team led by Professor Lee Berger announced the discovery of the remains of two early protohumans in South Africa. The bones consisted of an adult female and a boy who most likely died when they fell into an underground cave. The protohumans were dubbed Australopithecus sediba.

After further examination, Professor Berger and his team now believe that this new species, although older than other species typically considered ancestors to Homo Erectus, was actually more advanced in terms of anatomy and likely capabilities. This has led the team to announce that Australopithecus sediba is a more likely candidate for the ancestor for Homo Erectus than the usual suspects. If true, that would make it “on the direct evolutionary line to us.” In other words, it could be a missing link.

“We have examined the critical areas of anatomy that have been used consistently for identifying the uniqueness of human beings. Any one of these features could have evolved separately, but it is highly unlikely that all of them would have evolved together if Australopithecus sediba was not related to our lineage.” ~ Professor Lee Berger, The University of the Witwatersrand

Some of the evidence backing this assertion include:

  • Age: The fossils were dated to 1.977 to 1.980 million years ago, making it old enough to be an ancestor to Homo Erectus.
  • Brain: While smaller than older fossils, the boy’s brain was probably more similar to modern humans in terms of shape. This may indicate “the start of the reorganization of the brain that would be necessary to make us what we are today.”
  • Hand: The adult female’s right hand shares far more in common with modern humans than with apes.

Guerrilla Explorer’s Analysis

So, is Australopithecus sediba a direct ancestor to Homo Erectus and thus, a direct ancestor to us? Is it a missing link? As of this point, scientists aren’t completely convinced. However, many seem to think that it’s a distinct possibility.

“One lineage of Australopithecus almost certainly led into the first member of our own genus called Homo, and from then eventually emerged modern humans. But some of them are side branches, and we’re trying to work out which ones are and which ones aren’t – and that’s why this finding is so important. In many ways, these fossils are the ‘smoking gun’ just before the emergence of our own genus.” ~ Dr. William Harcourt-Smit, American Museum of Natural History

The site where the Australopithecus sediba remains were found is believed to contain more fossils. If so, those fossils may strengthen Professor Berger’s case…and in the process, help to rewrite the history of human evolution as we know it.