Genetic Archaeology Research & News

Advanced system for endorphins and opiates already existed in first vertebrates (10/8/2008)

Researchers have now found that four reward receptors existed as far back as the early vertebrates and therefore appeared at least 450 million years ago. ...> Full Article

Gene expression in alligators suggests birds have 'thumbs' (10/5/2008)

New breakthrough in a 120 year-old debate on the evolution of the bird wing ...> Full Article

Short RNAs show a long history (10/3/2008)

MicroRNAs are found in animals that appeared a billion years ago ...> Full Article

Mysterious snippets of DNA withstand eons of evolution (10/2/2008)

Small stretches of seemingly useless DNA harbor a big secret ...> Full Article

From One Laying To Another, The Female Collembolan Adapts Its Eggs To Environmental Constraints (9/29/2008)

Researchers have demonstrated the adaptive nature of the reproductive behavior of certain arthropods from one laying to another, in the same female. ...> Full Article

Genetic damage in minibacteria in aphids and ants repaired by faulty copying (9/28/2008)

Researchers are presenting experimental findings that show that repeated errors in the conversion of DNA to protein save the function of the damaged genes ...> Full Article

'Redesigned Hammer' That Forged Evolution Of Pregnancy In Mammals Found (9/27/2008)

Researchers have shown that the origin and evolution of the placenta and uterus in mammals is associated with evolutionary changes in a single regulatory protein ...> Full Article

Insight into the evolution of parasitism (9/23/2008)

Molecular biologists have decoded the genome of a nematode living in beetles ...> Full Article

Genetic Fishing Expedition Yields Surprising Catch Important To Mammals (9/21/2008)

investigators report the discovery of master controllers of a gene critical to human and all mammalian development by trawling, implausibly enough, through anonymous genetic sequences using tiny zebrafish embryos. ...> Full Article

Research pushes back crop development 10,000 years (9/20/2008)

A new mathematical model that shows how plant agriculture actually began much earlier than first thought, well before the Younger Dryas (the last "big freeze" with glacial conditions in the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere). It also shows that useful gene types could have actually taken thousands of years to become stable. ...> Full Article

From mice to men, evidence of evolutionary selection is found in 544 genes in analysis going back 80 million years (9/18/2008)

By comparing the genomes of humans and five other mammals, Cornell researchers have identified 544 genes that have been shaped by positive selection over millions of years of evolution. ...> Full Article

DNA study reveals evolution of beer yeasts (9/12/2008)

The research offers a fascinating glimpse into the early history of beer brewing, as well as an unheralded sneak peek at the early days of the evolution of a new yeast species. ...> Full Article

Computational Biochemist Uncovers A Molecular Clue To Evolution (9/11/2008)

A researcher who uses high-powered computers to map the workings of proteins has uncovered a mechanism that gives scientists a better understanding of how evolution occurs at the molecular level. ...> Full Article

Significance of milk in development of culture to be studied (9/7/2008)

Researchers too study when and where The capacity to drink and tolerate milk emerged and what it entailed. ...> Full Article

Molecular evolution is echoed in bat ears (9/7/2008)

Echolocation may have evolved more than once in bats ...> Full Article

Scientists develop new method to investigate origin of life (9/6/2008)

Researchers have developed a new computational method that they say will help them to understand how life began on Earth ...> Full Article

DNA shows that last woolly mammoths had North American roots (9/5/2008)

In a surprising reversal of conventional wisdom, a DNA-based study has revealed that the last of the woolly mammoths -- which lived between 40,000 and 4,000 years ago -- had roots that were exclusively North American. ...> Full Article

Researchers find 'junk DNA' may have triggered (9/5/2008)

Out of the 3 billion genetic letters that spell out the human genome, scientists have found a handful that may have contributed to the evolutionary changes in human limbs that enabled us to manipulate tools and walk upright. ...> Full Article

New research challenges long-held assumptions of flightless bird evolution (9/4/2008)

Large flightless birds of the southern continents - African ostriches, Australian emus and cassowaries, South American rheas and the New Zealand kiwi - do not share a common flightless ancestor as once believed. ...> Full Article

Researchers locate geographic origins from DNA (9/3/2008)

Using DNA to ID European ancestry ...> Full Article

'Armoured' Fish Study Helps Strengthen Darwin's Natural Selection Theory (8/29/2008)

Shedding some genetically induced excess baggage may have helped a tiny fish thrive in freshwater and outsize its marine ancestors ...> Full Article

Genome of simplest animal reveals ancient lineage, confounding array of complex capabilities (8/25/2008)

The findings establish a group of organisms as a branching point of animal evolution and identify sets of genes, or a "parts list," employed by organisms that have evolved along particular branches ...> Full Article

Genetics reveals big fish that almost got away (8/24/2008)

DNA studies by scientists show 1 critically endangered grouper species is really 2 ...> Full Article

Exploding chromosomes fuel research about evolution of genetic storage (8/23/2008)

New research into single-celled, aquatic algae called dinoflagellates is showing that these and related organisms may have evolved more than one way to package DNA. ...> Full Article

Tahitian vanilla originated in Maya forests, says botanist (8/22/2008)

Team identifies enigmatic orchid's origins; traces its Pacific voyage via Spanish and French trading ships ...> Full Article

Research touches a nerve (8/21/2008)

researchers have traced the origins of one of the most important steps in animal evolution â€" the development of nerves. ...> Full Article

Molecular sleuths track evolution through the ribosome (8/20/2008)

A new study of the ribosome, the cell's protein-building machinery, sheds light on the oldest branches of the evolutionary tree of life and suggests that differences in ribosomal structure among the three main branches of that tree are "molecular fossils" of the early evolution of protein synthesis. ...> Full Article

Nine To Twenty Individual Fire Ant Queens Started U.S. Fire Ant Population (8/17/2008)

The current U.S. population of red imported fire ants--which infest millions of acres across the southern states--can be traced back to nine to 20 queens in Mobile, Ala. ...> Full Article

How DNA Repairs Can Reshape Genome, Spawn New Species (8/15/2008)

Researchers have shown how broken sections of chromosomes can recombine to change genomes and spawn new species. ...> Full Article