Featured
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News |
Ardi may be more ape than human
Woodland home and hominid ancestry of Ardipithecus ramidus questioned.
- Rex Dalton
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Letter |
Primitive soft-bodied cephalopods from the Cambrian
The 505-million-year-old Burgess Shales of British Columbia are justifiably famous for the exquisite preservation of their fossils, and for the extreme oddity of many of them. One such is Nectocaris pteryx, which, from the few fossils available for study, looked like a chordate fused with an arthropod. However, the collection and examination of more fossils of Nectocaris suggests that it in fact represents an early offshoot of cephalopod molluscs — a kind of squid, though with two rather than eight or ten tentacles.
- Martin R. Smith
- & Jean-Bernard Caron
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Letter |
A Late Cretaceous ceratopsian dinosaur from Europe with Asian affinities
Ceratopsians — horned dinosaurs — were distinctive features of the fauna of the Cretaceous period in East Asia and western North America. There have been hints that they might also have occurred elsewhere, but this has not been definitive, until now. The discovery of a ceratopsian, Ajkaceratops kozmai, from what is now Hungary shows that Late Cretaceous biogeography still has surprises in store.
- Attila Ősi
- , Richard J. Butler
- & David B. Weishampel
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News & Views |
A little Kraken wakes
Fossils from the famed Burgess Shale continue to deliver fresh perspectives on a dramatic episode in evolutionary time. The latest revelations bear on the early history of cephalopod molluscs.
- Stefan Bengtson
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News & Views |
Horned dinosaurs venture abroad
The discovery in Europe of fossils of a small horned dinosaur, a member of a group previously known only from Asia and North America, will prompt a rethink of biogeography at that time in the past.
- Xing Xu
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News |
All evolution, all the time
David Sloan Wilson explains why evolution is of consequence to everyone.
- Emma Marris
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News |
Teeth tell temperature tales
Dinosaurs' dental samples could reveal details of body temperature.
- Richard Lovett
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News |
Fast-breeding mice dominate a warming world
Past climate change led to lower diversity in the small and furry.
- Janet Fang
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News |
Ancient origin for monkey version of HIV
Long history of SIV suggests HIV won't quickly become benign.
- Elie Dolgin
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Letter |
Sequence space and the ongoing expansion of the protein universe
The need to maintain the structural and functional integrity of an evolving protein limits the range of acceptable amino-acid substitutions — but to what extent does this constrain how far homologous protein sequences can diverge? Here, sequence divergence data are used to explore the limits of protein evolution, and to conclude that ancient proteins are continuing to diverge from one another, indicating that the protein sequence universe is slowly expanding.
- Inna S. Povolotskaya
- & Fyodor A. Kondrashov
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Letter |
A formal test of the theory of universal common ancestry
It is generally assumed that life had a single origin — or, at least, that all extant life descended from a 'universal common ancestor' (UCA) — although this view has been called into question by evidence for extensive horizontal gene transfer. Here, the UCA view is framed as a formal hypothesis and tested (crucially, without assuming that genetic similarity reflects genetic kinship). The UCA view triumphs: a single origin of life is overwhelmingly more likely than any competing hypothesis.
- Douglas L. Theobald
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Letter |
Ordovician faunas of Burgess Shale type
The Burgess Shales of British Columbia are famous for having yielded fossils of soft-bodied creatures from the Middle Cambrian period. Although similar faunas are now known from localities as far apart as China and Greenland, they seem to have died out before the end of the Cambrian. Or did they? Here, the discovery of a Burgess Shale-type fauna from the Ordovician period in Morocco is reported, showing that creatures of this type persisted beyond the end of the Cambrian.
- Peter Van Roy
- , Patrick J. Orr
- & Derek E. G. Briggs
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News |
Weird wonders lived past the Cambrian
Moroccan fossils show that strange early animals were no flash in the pan.
- Nicola Jones
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News |
Ancient DNA set to rewrite human history
Discovery that some humans are part-Neanderthal reveals the promise of comparing genomes old and new.
- Rex Dalton
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News |
Whipping up a little natural selection
Manipulated islands reveal secrets of lizard adaptation.
- Emma Marris
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Letter |
Experimentally assessing the relative importance of predation and competition as agents of selection
What agents of selection shape creatures in the wild? The answer for the brown anole lizard seems to be competition with its fellows, rather than predation from without. Bird or snake predators were included or excluded across six Caribbean islands that ranged from low to high population densities of lizards. Although the presence of predators altered lizard behaviour, it was increases in lizard population density that altered the lizard's phenotype, favouring larger size, longer legs and increased stamina for running.
- Ryan Calsbeek
- & Robert M. Cox
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News |
European and Asian genomes have traces of Neanderthal
Migrating humans interbred with Neanderthals after leaving Africa.
- Rex Dalton
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Letter |
X-ray crystal structure of the light-independent protochlorophyllide reductase
The ability of plants to 'green' in the dark is attributed to the activity of the dark-operative protochlorophyllide oxidoreductase (DPOR). This enzyme catalyses the stereospecific reduction of the C17≡C18 double bond of protochlorophyllide to form chlorophyllide a, the direct precursor of chlorophyll a. The X-ray crystal structure of the catalytic component of DPOR has now been solved. A chemical mechanism is proposed by which the reduction of the double bond may occur.
- Norifumi Muraki
- , Jiro Nomata
- & Yuichi Fujita
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Research Highlights |
Ecology: Not-so-lonesome lizards
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Research Highlights |
Evolutionary biology: Good times and bad
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News |
Dinosaurs outgrow their baby feathers
Fossils highlight differences between youth and adulthood.
- Janet Fang
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Letter |
Stepwise [FeFe]-hydrogenase H-cluster assembly revealed in the structure of HydAΔEFG
Hydrogen metabolism is facilitated by the activity of three hydrogenase enzymes. The catalytic core of the [FeFe]-hydrogenase (HydA), called the H-cluster, exists as a [4Fe4S] subcluster linked to a modified 2Fe subcluster. Here, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii HydA was expressed in a genetic background that did not contain the other hydrogenase biosynthetic genes. The structure of this HydA was then solved, revealing the stepwise manner by which the H-cluster is synthesized, and offering insight into how HydA might have evolved.
- David W. Mulder
- , Eric S. Boyd
- & John W. Peters
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Research Highlights |
Cultural evolution: High fidelity
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News |
Neanderthals may have interbred with humans
Genetic data points to ancient liaisons between species.
- Rex Dalton
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News |
Mapping methylation's mysterious background
Analysis of 17 species fills in evolutionary history of DNA modification process.
- Alla Katsnelson
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News & Views |
Ways to raise tadpoles
To reduce parental care, just add water — that's the conclusion of an intriguing investigation into the extent of the motherly and fatherly devotion that different species of frog extend to their offspring.
- Hanna Kokko
- & Michael Jennions
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News |
Claim over 'human ancestor' sparks furore
Researchers dispute that hominin fossil is a new species.
- Michael Cherry
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News |
What's in a name? Fly world is abuzz
Proposed reorganization of Drosophila fruitfly genus might throw out its most celebrated member.
- Rex Dalton
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News & Views |
A flourishing of fish forms
According to an innovative exercise in 'morphospace analysis', modern fish owe their stunning diversity in part to an ecological cleaning of the slate by the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous.
- Michael Alfaro
- & Francesco Santini
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News Feature |
Archaeology: Hidden treasure
The explosion in commercial archaeology has brought a flood of information. The problem now is figuring out how to find and use this unpublished literature, reports Matt Ford.
- Matt Ford
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Article |
Generation of a novel wing colour pattern by the Wingless morphogen
Here, the generation and evolution of the complex spotted wing pattern of Drosophila guttifera are investigated. The findings show that wing spots are induced by the Wingless morphogen, and that the elaborate spot pattern evolved from simpler schemes by co-option of Wingless expression at new sites. This type of process is likely to occur in other animals, too.
- Thomas Werner
- , Shigeyuki Koshikawa
- & Sean B. Carroll
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Letter |
Exceptional dinosaur fossils show ontogenetic development of early feathers
Study of two specimens of the feathered dinosaur Similicaudipteryx shows that the morphology of dinosaur feathers changed dramatically as the animals matured. Moreover, the morphology of feathers in dinosaurs was much more varied than one would expect from looking at feathers in modern birds.
- Xing Xu
- , Xiaoting Zheng
- & Hailu You
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Letter |
Evolution of self-compatibility in Arabidopsis by a mutation in the male specificity gene
Self-fertilisation (selfing) in plants is prevented mainly by the self-incompatibility recognition system, which consists of male and female specificity genes and modifier genes. Selfing does occur in Arabidopsis plants, but it is not known how it arose. Here it is reported that selfing in Arabidopsis results from a geographically widespread, 213-base-pair inversion within the male specificity gene. When this inversion is returned to its original orientation, selfing is prevented once more.
- Takashi Tsuchimatsu
- , Keita Suwabe
- & Kentaro K. Shimizu
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News & Views |
50 & 100 years ago
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News |
Rule poses threat to museum bones
Law change will allow Native American tribes to reclaim ancient bones found close to their lands.
- Rex Dalton
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News & Views |
Stranger from Siberia
The sequencing of ancient DNA is generating dramatic results. The sequence from a bone fragment has revealed the existence of an unknown type of extinct human ancestor that lived in Asia 40,000 years ago.
- Terence A. Brown
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News |
Fossil finger points to new human species
DNA analysis reveals lost relative from 40,000 years ago.
- Rex Dalton
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Letter
| Open AccessThe complete mitochondrial DNA genome of an unknown hominin from southern Siberia
Ancient mitochondrial DNA from a hominin individual who lived in the mountains of Central Asia between 48,000–30,000 years ago has been sequenced. Comparative genomics suggest that this mitochondrial DNA derives from an out-of-Africa migration distinct from the ones that gave rise to Neanderthals and modern humans. It also seems that this hominin lived in close spatio-temporal proximity to Neanderthals and modern humans.
- Johannes Krause
- , Qiaomei Fu
- & Svante Pääbo
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Letter |
Post-copulatory sexual selection and sexual conflict in the evolution of male pregnancy
Male pregnancy is restricted to seahorses, pipefishes and their relatives, in which young are nurtured in the male's brood pouch. It is now clear that the brood pouch has a further function. Studies of Gulf pipefish show that males can selectively abort embryos from females perceived as less attractive, saving resources for more hopeful prospects later. This is the only known example of post-copulatory sexual conflict in a sex-reversed species.
- Kimberly A. Paczolt
- & Adam G. Jones
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News |
Hobbit origins pushed back
Stone tools reveal that hominins lived on the Indonesian island of Flores a million years ago.
- Rex Dalton
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Research Highlights |
Palaeontology: Egg-stracting DNA
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Research Highlights |
Archaeology: Adoption or migration?
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News |
Male pipefish abort embryos of ugly mothers
Males show sexual selection before and after copulation.
- Janet Fang
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Letter |
Hominins on Flores, Indonesia, by one million years ago
Evidence for hominin activity on Flores, Indonesia, has been thought to go back at least 800,000 years, as shown by fission-track dating at Mata Menge in the Soa Basin. However, new research at another locality in the Soa Basin uses the more accurate technique of 40Ar/39Ar dating to show that hominins were living on Flores at least a million years ago.
- Adam Brumm
- , Gitte M. Jensen
- & Michael Storey
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