Tag: Research

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New Research Reveals Australian Megafauna Coexisted with People

Zygomaturus

Zygomaturus trilobus, discovered several decades ago may have finally provided the answer. Large and lumbering with big flared cheek bones (zygomatics), Zygomaturus was a marsupial generally the size of a large bull. Little is known about its ecology, or why it went extinct. Excavated on two different occasions during the 1980s, the animal’s upper jaw was shipped to the Australian Museum in Sydney where it was stored still surrounded by the original sediments. The lower part of the jaw is on display at Mungo National Park. Optically stimulated luminescence dating (OSL) was used to test the sediment samples, while the fossils were tested directly using uranium series (U-series) dating. The tests show the specimen died approximately 33,000 years ago. Aborigines arrived in the region about 50,000 years ago. The Zygomaturus specimen indicates megafauna and people coexisted for 17,000 years at least. In fact, the species appears to have lived until the dramatic climate change referred to as the last glacial cycle prior to the Last Glacial Maximum. This date of 33,000 years does not necessarily represent the extinction of Zygomaturus. The deteriorating climatic conditions could have made Willandra Lakes a refuge for both people and megafauna as the surrounding plains became drier, bringing species like the Zygomaturus into increased contact with people. Regardless, the fossil has caused a shift in the debate over megafauna extinction. The research has been published in the Quaternary Science Reviews journal. ]]>

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Forensic Analysis Answers 40,000-Year-Old Question

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Phys ORG: “Archaeologists are interested in hand stencils because they provide a direct, physical connection with an artist living more than 35,000 years ago. Now, using a new experimental application, results from our study indicate it is possible to determine with more than 90% accuracy the sex of someone who lived tens of thousands of years ago from the shape and size of their hand outline. We have even applied the method to hand stencils where digits are missing – common in Paleolithic art – something prior studies have not been able to do.” The hand stencils were created by blowing pigment over a hand as it was held against a stone surface, when the hand was removed it left behind an outline of its shape. Hand stencils discovered in Sulawesi, Indonesia have been dated to 40,000 years ago, and the ones found in Europe are an estimated 37,000 years old, a time period referred to as the Upper Paleolithic. Prior to this research, experts studied the size of the hand and the length of the fingers to determine the gender of its owner, which often led to conflicting outcomes. For this project, researchers used geometric morphometrics to determine sex-based differences in the shape and form of the hand. By digitizing hand stencils from a known gender, along with a number of 2D landmarks, the true shape and the relative size of each sample could be statistically evaluated. Geometric morphometrics is the statistical analysis of a specific type of geometric data associated with an organism, data about the location of the parts of an organism in relation to each other. This technique combines morphometrics (the geometry of organisms) with engineering and computer science to focus on information at location points inside of, or on, organisms. Forensic anthropologist Dr. Patrick Randolph-Quinney told Phys ORG: “The problem with focusing on hand size and finger length is that two different shaped hands can have identical linear dimensions and ratios. To capture shape, we applied geometric morphometrics, a technique used in forensic studies that had never been tested on hand stencils before. This geometric approach is very powerful as it allows us to look at the palm and fingers independently. It revealed that the shape of the palm is actually most indicative of the sex of the individual, rather than the finger size or length.” The project was a collaborative effort between archaeologists, biologists, and anthropologists from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) and the University of Liverpool in the UK, and the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa. The research has been published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. ]]>

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Prehistoric Humans Playing with Fire Changed European Landscape

Larmfeur 2010

Homo erectus begins around 400,000 years ago. Evidence of the widespread use of fire by modern humans’ dates back to approximately 125,000 years ago. An earlier report by Leiden’s Human Origins group had already proposed that Stone Age hunter-gatherers may have significantly modified their natural environment through the use of fire. This new research confirms the first hypothesis, and may also provide one of the earliest examples of this kind of large-scale impact by humans throughout all of Europe. The research was funded by the European Research Council, the Swiss National Science Foundation and the European HERCULES research program. The findings have been published in the journal PLOS ONE.]]>

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Research Shows “Lucy” Could Walk Upright and Swing Through Trees

lucy-frankfurt-1

New Scientist. The debate may finally be settled based on the work completed by Christopher Ruff with Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, along with his colleagues. Using CT scans taken of Lucy’s skeleton, they studied the cross sections of both (left and right) upper arm bones along with the left thigh bone — the thigh bone from the right leg was never found. What the team discovered was that Lucy’s arm bones had thick walls, suggesting unusual strength. Bone strength is considered a “use it or lose it” characteristic directly related to an animal’s behavior and not inherited; meaning that at least some australopiths were at home on the ground and in trees. “It would not be present unless Lucy mechanically loaded her upper limbs more than most modern humans,” Ruff told New Scientist. “Ours is the best evidence to date that A. afarensis actually spent a significant portion of their time engaged in arboreal behaviour.” Over the course of a person’s life, bone structure changes depending on the way we use, or don’t use, our bodies. Human thigh bones typically have thicker walls due to all of our walking, our arm bones however, have relatively thin walls because we seldom use them to carry or lift our full body weight. Chimpanzees on the other hand develop arms with thick-walled bones because of their tree climbing. Previously, Ruff and his team discovered injuries to Lucy’s skeleton that indicated she may have died from a high fall, most likely from a tree. That study also suggested that Lucy spent a significant amount of time climbing trees, but it was far from conclusive. “I could fall out of a tree and present the same injuries as they suggest Lucy had,” Harcourt-Smith says in the article. The study has been published in the online journal PLOS One. ]]>

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New Study Shows How America’s Earliest People Didn’t Get There

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Genetic Code Has Its Limits

Floresta Alagada (1)

Science Advances, an organism’s ability to adapt lies squarely on the shoulders of protein synthesis, so it’s critical to biological systems that the information is transferred correctly. Increasing genetic code by building proteins with customized amino acids is one of the goals scientists working with synthetic biology are pursuing. Doing this would allow scientists to assign specific functions to a specific amino acid. Researchers use organisms like bacteria and work in highly controlled systems to produce proteins with specific characteristics that will also allow them to be identified as synthetic, a key function of effective biotechnological systems. Synthetic biology combines various disciplines from within engineering and biology, such as biotechnology, molecular biology, evolutionary biology, biophysics, systems biology, genetic engineering and computer engineering, and describing the field depends a lot on your approach; as an engineer or as a biologist. It was originally considered a field of biology however, chemical and electrical engineering have started to play a larger role in recent years. In addition to the numerous technical and scientific challenges synthetic biology faces, there are the ethical and biosecurity questions. Because of previous issues raised with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) however, there are already extensive regulations in place in the U.S. and Europe. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons user: Artur Warchavchik]]>