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| Open AccessInference and reconstruction of the heimdallarchaeial ancestry of eukaryotes
Analyses of multiple phylogenetic marker datasets of Asgard archaea provide insight into the transition from prokaryotes to eukaryotes, specifically placing eukaryotes within Asgard archaea and as a sister lineage to Hodarchaeales.
- Laura Eme
- , Daniel Tamarit
- & Thijs J. G. Ettema
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News |
Laos cave fossils prompt rethink of human migration map
A skull fragment and shin bone suggest that early modern humans might have passed through southeast Asia earlier than thought.
- Jude Coleman
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News & Views |
Infancy of sterol biosynthesis hints at extinct eukaryotic species
A newly discovered fossil record of steroid molecules, spanning 1.64 billion years, points to ancient organisms in the eukaryotic domain being capable of only early steps in the synthesis of sterol molecules.
- Fabien Kenig
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News |
A ‘lost world’ of early microbes thrived one billion years ago
Fat-like compounds in ancient rocks point to a vast array of previously unknown microorganisms that once dominated complex life on Earth.
- Heidi Ledford
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Article
| Open AccessNorthwest African Neolithic initiated by migrants from Iberia and Levant
Genome sequencing of nine individuals shows ancestry shifts in the Neolithization of northwestern Africa that probably mirrored a heterogeneous economic and cultural landscape in a more multifaceted process than observed in other regions.
- Luciana G. Simões
- , Torsten Günther
- & Mattias Jakobsson
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Article |
Lost world of complex life and the late rise of the eukaryotic crown
Analysis of sedimentary rocks from the mid-Proterozoic interval reveals traces of protosteroids, suggesting the widespread presence of stem-group eukaryotes that predated and co-existed with the crown-group ancestors of modern eukaryotes.
- Jochen J. Brocks
- , Benjamin J. Nettersheim
- & Janet M. Hope
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News |
India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks — experts are baffled
Nature has learnt that the periodic table, as well as evolution, won’t be taught to under-16s as they start the new school year.
- Dyani Lewis
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Article
| Open AccessA median fin derived from the lateral plate mesoderm and the origin of paired fins
We identify that the larval zebrafish unpaired pre-anal fin fold is derived from the lateral plate mesoderm, can be readily duplicated, and thus may represent a developmental intermediate between median and paired fins.
- Keh-Weei Tzung
- , Robert L. Lalonde
- & Tom J. Carney
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Article
| Open AccessAncient gene linkages support ctenophores as sister to other animals
Deeply conserved syntenic characters unite sponges with bilaterians, cnidarians, and placozoans in a monophyletic clade to the exclusion of the comb jellies (ctenophores)—placing ctenophores as the sister group to all other animals.
- Darrin T. Schultz
- , Steven H. D. Haddock
- & Daniel S. Rokhsar
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Research Briefing |
Chromosomal comparisons reveal comb jellies as the sister group to all other animals
Analyses of chromosome organization across diverse animals and non-animals provide evidence that a group of marine creatures called ctenophores, or comb jellies, are the sister clade of all other animals, bringing to bear new methods to answer a long-standing evolutionary question.
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Nature Podcast |
JWST shows an ancient galaxy in stunning spectroscopic detail
New insights into the structure of an early galaxy, and why coral-reef fishes grow so quickly.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Nick Petrić Howe
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Article |
A weakly structured stem for human origins in Africa
An analysis of models of human populations in Africa, using some newly sequenced genomes, finds that human origins in the continent can best be described by a weakly structured stem model.
- Aaron P. Ragsdale
- , Timothy D. Weaver
- & Simon Gravel
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Article |
The evolution of fast-growing coral reef fishes
The high global temperatures of the Eocene and subsequent habitat reconfigurations might have been critical for the rise and retention of the highly productive, high-turnover fish faunas that characterize modern coral reef ecosystems.
- Alexandre C. Siqueira
- , Helen F. Yan
- & David R. Bellwood
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Article |
Cycles of satellite and transposon evolution in Arabidopsis centromeres
Inter- and intra-species comparison of Arabidopsis centromere variation identifies rapid cycles of transposon invasion and purging through satellite homogenization that drive centromere evolution.
- Piotr Wlodzimierz
- , Fernando A. Rabanal
- & Ian R. Henderson
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Research Highlight |
This gigantic toothy reptile terrorized the Jurassic oceans
Fossils show that extinct marine beasts called pliosaurs might have grown to be nearly as large as a sperm whale.
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News |
Prized dinosaur fossil will finally be returned to Brazil
Following theft accusations, a German museum is set to hand over a one-of-a-kind dinosaur specimen with feather-like structures.
- Meghie Rodrigues
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Article
| Open AccessIncreased mutation and gene conversion within human segmental duplications
A study comparing the pattern of single-nucleotide variation between unique and duplicated regions of the human genome shows that mutation rate and interlocus gene conversion are elevated in duplicated regions.
- Mitchell R. Vollger
- , Philip C. Dishuck
- & Evan E. Eichler
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Article
| Open AccessRecombination between heterologous human acrocentric chromosomes
Comparisons within the human pangenome establish that homologous regions on short arms of heterologous human acrocentric chromosomes actively recombine, leading to the high rate of Robertsonian translocation breakpoints in these regions.
- Andrea Guarracino
- , Silvia Buonaiuto
- & Erik Garrison
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Article |
De novo evolution of macroscopic multicellularity
After 600 rounds of selection, anaerobic snowflake yeast evolved to be macroscopic, becoming around 20,000 times larger (approximately mm scale) and about 10,000-fold more biophysically tough, while retaining a clonal multicellular life cycle.
- G. Ozan Bozdag
- , Seyed Alireza Zamani-Dahaj
- & William C. Ratcliff
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Article |
A pan-grass transcriptome reveals patterns of cellular divergence in crops
Complementary single-cell and single-nucleus transcriptomic analyses of Zea mays, Sorghum bicolor and Setaria viridis root cells provide insights into the evolution of cell types and gene modules that control key traits in these important crop species.
- Bruno Guillotin
- , Ramin Rahni
- & Kenneth D. Birnbaum
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Article
| Open AccessAncient human DNA recovered from a Palaeolithic pendant
A non-destructive DNA isolation method for the stepwise release of DNA trapped in ancient tooth and bone artefacts is developed.
- Elena Essel
- , Elena I. Zavala
- & Matthias Meyer
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Review Article |
Reappraising the palaeobiology of Australopithecus
This Review examines the palaeobiology of Australopithecus in terms of morphology, phylogeny, diet, tool use, locomotor behaviour and other characteristics, and considers the role of this genus of hominins in human evolution.
- Zeresenay Alemseged
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Article |
Testosterone histories from tusks reveal woolly mammoth musth episodes
Comparisons of steroid hormone concentrations in dentin samples from fossil mammoth tusks with those from a modern elephant tusk provide evidence of periodic increases in testosterone in the male mammoth characteristic of musth episodes.
- Michael D. Cherney
- , Daniel C. Fisher
- & Alexei N. Tikhonov
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Research Highlight |
Fish on dry land hint at why we blink
Insights from mudskippers suggest that blinking is an adaptation to emerging from the sea.
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News |
Huge cache of mammal genomes offers fresh insights on human evolution
The Zoonomia Project is helping to pinpoint genes responsible for animal-brain size and for human disease.
- Max Kozlov
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News & Views |
An evolutionary route to warning coloration
Bright colours that signal toxicity can deter predators, but how such colours initially evolve without first endangering conspicuous organisms is a contentious issue. Analysis of amphibians offers an answer to the puzzle.
- Tim Caro
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News |
Comb jellies’ unique fused neurons challenge evolution ideas
Fused neurons suggest ctenophores’ nervous system evolved independently of that in other animals.
- Mariana Lenharo
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Matters Arising |
Insufficient evidence for non-neutrality of synonymous mutations
- Leonid Kruglyak
- , Andreas Beyer
- & Craig D. Kaplan
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Article
| Open AccessMirusviruses link herpesviruses to giant viruses
A phylogeny-guided genome-resolved metagenomic analysis of DNA viruses in the ocean reveals atypical plankton-infecting relatives of herpesviruses that form a putative new phylum dubbed Mirusviricota.
- Morgan Gaïa
- , Lingjie Meng
- & Tom O. Delmont
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Research Highlight |
Amber reveals beetles with a fluffy diet: dinosaur feathers
Larvae that fed on ancient plumage reveal the deep roots of keratin-eating insects.
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Nature Video |
‘Touch-taste’: how the octopus repurposed its nervous system to hunt
Researchers identify the structural basis for octopuses chemo-tactile sense.
- Dan Fox
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News & Views |
Genome reveals how the skate got its wings
Genome sequencing, combined with methods for deducing how genomic regions interact, have now provided insight into how the wings that give skates and rays their characteristic shapes evolved more than 200 million years ago.
- Chris Amemiya
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Nature Podcast |
Octopuses hunt by ‘tasting’ with their suckers
The receptors that help octopuses sense by touch, plus a round-up of stories from the Nature Briefing.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Nick Petrić Howe
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News |
How octopuses taste with their arms
Ultra-specialized proteins enable octopuses and squids to taste surfaces with their suckers — and these proteins are tailored to each animal’s way of life.
- Sara Reardon
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Article
| Open AccessThe little skate genome and the evolutionary emergence of wing-like fins
Skate-specific changes in the epigenome and its three-dimensional organization contributed to the evolution of the batoid fin morphology.
- Ferdinand Marlétaz
- , Elisa de la Calle-Mustienes
- & José Luis Gómez-Skarmeta
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Article |
Structural basis of sensory receptor evolution in octopus
Cryo-electron microscopy analyses reveal adaptations that facilitate the octopus chemotactile receptor’s evolutionary transition from an ancestral role in neurotransmission to detecting greasy environmental agonists for ‘taste by touch’ sensory behaviour.
- Corey A. H. Allard
- , Guipeun Kang
- & Nicholas W. Bellono
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Article |
Sensory specializations drive octopus and squid behaviour
Octopus and squid use cephalopod-specific chemotactile receptors to sense their respective marine environments, but structural adaptations in these receptors support the sensation of specific molecules suited to distinct physiological roles.
- Guipeun Kang
- , Corey A. H. Allard
- & Ryan E. Hibbs
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Article
| Open AccessThe evolution of non-small cell lung cancer metastases in TRACERx
A longitudinal evolutionary analysis of 126 lung cancer patients with metastatic disease reveals the timing of metastatic divergence, modes of dissemination and the genomic events subject to selection during the metastatic transition.
- Maise Al Bakir
- , Ariana Huebner
- & Charles Swanton
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Article |
Noncoding translation mitigation
Combining genome-wide CRISPR screens with massively parallel analyses of human and random DNA sequences reveal a unified mechanism for the surveillance and evolution of translation products from annotated noncoding DNA.
- Jordan S. Kesner
- , Ziheng Chen
- & Xuebing Wu
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Article
| Open AccessCryo-EM structure of the transposon-associated TnpB enzyme
Cryo-electron microscopy analysis of the Deinococcus radiodurans ISDra2 TnpB in complex with its cognate ωRNA and target DNA provides insights into the mechanism of TnpB function and the evolution of CRISPR–Cas12 effectors.
- Ryoya Nakagawa
- , Hisato Hirano
- & Osamu Nureki
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Research Highlight |
World’s biggest butterfly is low on genetic diversity
An endangered butterfly, found only in Papua New Guinea, has had a small population for a million years.
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News |
Facelift for T. rex: analysis suggests teeth were covered by thin lips
Crocodiles and Komodo dragons provide evidence to support the idea of a scaly cover over the teeth of dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex.
- Dyani Lewis
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Article |
Adeno-associated virus type 2 in US children with acute severe hepatitis
A retrospective analysis using PCR testing, viral enrichment-based sequencing and agnostic metagenomic sequencing finds an association between adeno-associated virus type 2 and paediatric hepatitis of unknown cause.
- Venice Servellita
- , Alicia Sotomayor Gonzalez
- & Charles Y. Chiu
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Article
| Open AccessEntwined African and Asian genetic roots of medieval peoples of the Swahili coast
Analysis of ancient human DNA from the Swahili coast reveals that predominantly African female ancestors and Asian male ancestors formed families after around ad 1000 and lived in elite communities in coastal stone towns.
- Esther S. Brielle
- , Jeffrey Fleisher
- & Chapurukha M. Kusimba
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Research Highlight |
How gliding mammals developed the flaps for ‘flight’
Both marsupial and placental mammals draw on the same genes to form their aerofoil skin flaps.
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Research Briefing |
Two sides of a bearded dragon’s brain compete during sleep
Sleep in the bearded dragon Pogona vitticeps comprises two alternating stages. During one of the stages, the activities of a structure called the claustrum in the left and right hemispheres of the brain are precisely coordinated but show competitive dynamics that depend on circuits in the midbrain typically associated with vision and attention.
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Research Briefing |
The mechanism of the simplest biological 24-hour clock
Circadian clocks, the biochemical oscillators that are controlled by the day–night cycle, have a central role in many biological processes. The mechanism underlying the earliest form of such oscillators involves the proteins KaiB and KaiC that orchestrate the addition and removal of a phosphate group to and from KaiC.
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Matters Arising
| Open AccessCommon orthopaedic trauma may explain 31,000-year-old remains
- Nicholas J. Murphy
- , Joshua S. Davis
- & Zsolt J. Balogh
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Article |
Protomelission is an early dasyclad alga and not a Cambrian bryozoan
Protomelission-like macrofossils from the Xiaoshiba Lagerstätte show features characteristic of dasycladalean green alga, suggesting that Protomelission is unlikely to be an early bryozoan.
- Jie Yang
- , Tian Lan
- & Martin R. Smith
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