Futurity.org » anthropology

Like Lady Gaga, early primate favored claws

Ron Wayne-U. Florida — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:21:06 +0000

U. FLORIDA (US) — Our primate ancestors may have traded flat nails for raised claws in the name of function, much like pop icons Adele and Lady Gaga are doing today in the name of fashion.

New research, reported in the journal PLoS One, examines the first extinct North American primate with a toe bone showing features associated with the presence of both nails and a claw. The finding raises questions about a 2009 study documenting the lack of grooming claws in another primitive primate species said to be a link in the ancestry of apes, monkeys and humans.

Bone DNA dates disease to Middle Ages

Andy Henion-Michigan State — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:36:05 +0000

MICHIGAN STATE (US) — A study of skeletal remains suggests the infectious disease brucellosis has been endemic to Albania since at least the Middle Ages.

Two teams of Michigan State University researchers—one working at a medieval burial site in Albania, the other at a DNA lab in East Lansing—have shown how modern science can unlock the mysteries of the past.

Syphilis origins point to Columbus

Carol Clark-Emory — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 20:25:55 +0000

EMORY (US) — New analysis of skeletal evidence suggests Christopher Columbus returned to Europe with unpleasant cargo: the bacteria that evolved into syphilis.

Skeletons don’t lie. But sometimes they may mislead, as in the case of bones that reputedly showed evidence of syphilis in Europe and other parts of the Old World before Christopher Columbus made his historic voyage in 1492.

Poet’s death solved after 150 years

A'ndrea Elyse Messer-Penn State — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 20:29:08 +0000

PENN STATE (US) — Known for her poetry, letters, and marriage to Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning left a legacy of unanswered questions about her lifelong chronic illness.

Now, an anthropologist, with the help of her daughter, may have unraveled the mystery.

Low-protein diet: How orangutans survive

Robin Lally-Rutgers — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:12:47 +0000

RUTGERS (US) — How orangutans survive during extreme food shortages may help scientists better understand human eating disorders and obesity.

“There is such a large obesity epidemic today and yet we don’t really understand the basis of the obesity condition or how these high-protein or low-protein diets work,” says Erin Vogel, an evolutionary anthropologist at Rutgers.

Like humans, chimps share to be social

Mike Ferlazzo-Iowa State — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 15:39:35 +0000

IOWA STATE (US) — Humans aren’t the only ones who recognize the benefits of sharing. New research finds male chimps share plants and hunting tools with females, perhaps as a strategy for future mating.

A new study of chimps at the Fongoli research site in Senegal, has documented a frequency of sharing previously unreported for chimpanzees—not only do they transfer meat and wild plant foods, they also share tools, honey, and soil.

Artificial ‘brain’ network hunts for fossils

Jessica Daues-WUSTL — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:26:22 +0000

WASHINGTON U.-ST. LOUIS (US) — Artificial intelligence is giving paleontologists a leg up in locating fossils—usually a task akin to finding the proverbial needle in a haystack.

Traditionally, fossil-hunters have only been able to make educated guesses about fossil locations.

Scientists uncover soybeans’ Asian roots

Michael Kennedy-Toronto — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:35:29 +0000

U. TORONTO (CAN) / U. OREGON (US) — New research challenges many of the long-held beliefs about when and where humans first began to domesticate soybeans—and specifically, increase its seed size.

“Soybeans appeared to be linked to humans almost as soon as villages were established in northern China,” says Gary Crawford, an anthropology professor at the University of Toronto Mississauga. “Soybean seems to be a plant that does well in human impacted habitats. In turn, humans began to learn how tasty soybean was and how useful it was.”

While previous estimates had put the domestication of soybean specifically in northern China between 3,000 and 5,000 years ago, no proof actually existed. In a paper published in the open-access journal PLoS ONE, University of Oregon’s Gyoung-Ah Lee, Crawford, and colleagues report that soybean was probably domesticated at least three separate times.

New evidence early primate lived in trees

Vanessa McMains-Johns Hopkins — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 12:04:07 +0000

JOHNS HOPKINS (US) — The first ankle and toe fossils from the earliest North American primate suggest our first forerunners on the continent may have lived or moved primarily in trees, like modern lemurs.

Previous excavations have yielded pieces of the jaw and teeth of Teilhardina, primates that first appeared just after the beginning of the Eocene Epoch about 55.5 million years ago.

No single cause for Ice Age extinctions

Keith Randall-Texas A&M — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:16:42 +0000

TEXAS A&M (US) —Neither climate change nor humans alone can account for the Ice Age mass extinctions, according to a new international study.

The extinctions caused the loss of a third of the large-bodied mammals (commonly called megafauna) such as the woolly rhinoceros and woolly mammoth in Eurasia and two thirds of the large mammals in North America. Scientists have for years debated the reasons behind the extinctions.