Eurasia •

Horse Domestication History Revealed By Ancient DNA

December 16, 2014 By Rebecca McGhee Leave a Comment

Speed, smarts, and the heart of a champion: utilizing genomic investigation, researchers have recognized DNA changes that helped transform aged horses, for example, those in ancient cavern art into today’s Secretariats and Black Beauty, specialists reported Monday.

Understanding the hereditary changes implicated in equine domestication, which prior studies followed to the windswept steppes of Eurasia 5,500 years back, has long been high on the list of things to get of evolutionary geneticists as of the vital part that taming wild horses played in the advancement of society.

When traders, officers and voyagers could jog instead of simply walk, it transformed trade, combat, the movement of individuals and the transmission of thoughts. It likewise empowered the advancement of continent sized domains like the Scythians 2,500 years back in what is presently Iran.

“It was all made possible by 125 genes,” as indicated by the findings of the study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Identified with skeletal muscles, parity, coordination, and heart quality, they delivered traits so alluring that old raisers chose horses for them, said geneticist Ludovic Orlando of the Natural History Museum of Denmark, who conducted the study. The result was based on eras of horses personalized for chariotry, pulling plows, and racing.

Genes active in the cerebrum likewise experienced assortment. Variations connected to social conduct, learning, terror reaction, and friendliness are all more profuse in domesticated horses.

The disclosure of the hereditary premise for horse domestication was bound to happen as no wild relatives of antiquated breeds survive. The closest is the Przewalski’s horse. By contrasting domesticated species with their wild relatives, researchers made sense of how organic entities as distinctive as rice, tomatoes and the dogs got to be tamed.

With no truly wild horses to study, Orlando’s group analyzed DNA from 29 horse bones found in the Siberian permafrost and dating from 16,000 and 43,000 years back, and contrasted it with DNA from five advanced domesticated breeds.

A few genes in today’s horses were missing overall from the antiquated ones, indicating they emerged from late transformations. Among them: a short-distance “speed gene” that pushes each Kentucky Derby champ.

Geneticists not included in the study proposed that examining equine DNA from around the time of domestication, instead of centuries back, may demonstrate more evidently what hereditary changes happened as horses were domesticated.

“Contrasting aged genomes with present day genomes is precarious,” said Arne Ludwig of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin.

Oldest Human Genome- 45,000 Year Old Neanderthals Femur Bone

October 24, 2014 By Jason Leathers Leave a Comment

A thigh bone nearly 45,000 years old brings up several unanswered questions in the researchers’ minds. It compels experts to think the degree of intimation between modern man and Stone Age ancestors.

The leg bone was discovered from the banks of the Irtysh River of Siberia in 2008. A Russian artist accidently got hold of the oldest bone of the human species that passed it to a native paleontologist. After several months paleontologist l supplied it to another group in Leipzig.

It amazed researchers to know the original age of the bone. The DNA informed that the man is approximately 43,000 to 47,000 years old. Bence Viola, co-author of the study reported that the bone was so pretty fossilized.

Moreover, the bone pointed out numerous things related to the interaction of Neanderthals with Africans and other people. It indicated the time period at which modern humans and Neanderthals first matted.

The most interesting thing is that the bone contains nearly two percent of the genome of Neanderthals. The ratio is almost similar to the amount of genome found in modern Africans.

Live Science stated that Neanderthals DNA piece means that the H.sapiens started matting with Neanderthals almost 50,000 to 60,000 years ago.

However, the connection between this pre-historic species and modern man are still in the dark. Merely the human migration of Africa to Eurasia supports the relationship of the two species. Eurasia came across Neanderthals nearly 60,000 years ago. The two groups matted because of which Neanderthals DNA was transferred in the modern human being.

This report signifies that every person on this Earth has 1 or 4 percent of Neanderthals DNA in his body.

45,000 Years Old Thigh Bone Reveals Some Huge Secrets About Human-Neanderthal Sex Timings

October 23, 2014 By Jason Leathers Leave a Comment

It seems no surprise that modern humans and Neanderthals interbred as most of the Eurasian population is, genetically, 1.6% to 2.1% Neanderthal. The question has long been when they did, with a wide estimate putting it between 37,000 and 86,000 years ago based on the DNA of people alive today. But the recent study revealed that modern humans and Neanderthals interbred around 50,000 to 60,000 years ago, which is close to the time of the major expansion of modern humans out of Africa and the Middle East.

The researchers examined thigh bone of a Siberian man, discovered by Nikolai Peristov, an artist and mammoth ivory collector on the left bank of the river Irtysh near the settlement of Ust’-Ishim in western Siberia in 2008. The age of the man’s bone to be is about 45,000 years old, researchers stated.

Janet Kelso, co-author of the study and a computational biologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, told Live Science, “This is the earliest directly dated modern human outside of Africa and the Middle East, and the oldest modern human [genome] to have been sequenced.”

Formerly, the researchers had proposed modern humans firstly populated Asia by traveling towards southern, coastal route that gave rise to the present-day people of Oceania, while a later, more northern migration, gave rise to mainland Asians. Kelson stated, “the researchers’ evidence for the modern human presence in Siberia 45,000 years ago specifies that the early modern humans were not just migrated to Eurasia through a southern route as previously suggested.”

The genetic analysis of the bone revealed that the it is closely related to present-day Asians and to early Europeans. “From this we conclude that the population to which the Ust’-Ishim individual belonged diverged from the ancestors of present-day Europeans and Asians before, or at around the same time as, these groups diverged from one another,” Kelso said.

The researchers believed that 45,000 years old man carried a similar level of Neanderthal ancestry as present-day Eurasians and the Neanderthal genes moved into the ancestors of this man 7,000 to 13,000 years before he lived.

Scientists Sequenced A 45000-Year-Old Man’s Genome

October 23, 2014 By Rebecca McGhee Leave a Comment

The DNA of a 45000 year old bone of a Siberian man has been recently examined by the researchers to find out when human and Neanderthals first interbred. On record, this is an oldest genome sequence of Homo sapiens exposing a mysterious population that may once have spanned northern Asia. The study is published in the Nature journal.

The oldest human genome also revealed that the closest extinct relatives of the modern humans were the Neanderthals who lived in Europe and Asia and vanished around 40,000 years ago. The Neanderthals interbred with ancestors of modern humans when modern humans began spreading out of Africa and today 1.5 to 2.1 percent of the DNA of anyone living outside Africa is Neanderthal in origin, study reveals.

“It remains vague when interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans happened. But it probably ranged between 37000 to 86000 years ago,” researchers stated.

The researchers examined the bone (human left femur), discovered by Nikolai Peristov, an artist and mammoth ivory collector on the left bank of the river Irtysh near the settlement of Ust’-Ishim in western Siberia in 2008. The age of the man’s bone to be is about 45,000 years old, researchers stated.

The researchers further examined the carbon and nitrogen isotopes present in the man’s bone proposes that he ate C3 plants, which rule cooler, wetter, cloudier regions such as garlic, eggplants, pears, beans and wheat as well as animals that also dined on C3 plants. Though, the study analysis reveals that he might have eaten aquatic foods like fresh water fish.

The DNA analysis of mans’s bone revealed that the he was closely related to present-day Asians and to early Europeans. “From this we conclude that the population to which the Ust’-Ishim individual belonged diverged from the ancestors of present-day Europeans and Asians before, or at around the same time as, these groups diverged from one another,” Kelso said.

The results of the study propose that modern humans and Neanderthals interbred around 50,000 to 60,000 years ago, “which is close to the time of the major expansion of modern humans out of Africa and the Middle East,” Kelso added.

DNA Reveals, Neanderthals & Modern Humans First Mated 50000 years ago

October 22, 2014 By Germaine Hicks 3 Comments

Recently, the researchers examined the DNA of a 45000 year old bone of a Siberian man in order to find out when human and Neanderthals first mated.

Though, the modern humans are the only humans surviving human ancestry, others once lived on Earth. The closest extinct relatives of the modern humans were the Neanderthals who lived in Europe and Asia and vanished around 40,000 years ago. According to the recent study, the Neanderthals mated with ancestors of modern humans when modern humans began spreading out of Africa and today 1.5% to 2.1% of the DNA of anyone living outside Africa is Neanderthal in origin.

The researchers said, “it remains vague when interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans happened. But it probably ranged between 37000 to 86000 years ago.”

In order to resolve this mystery, the researchers examined the shaft of a thighbone, which is discovered by Nikolai Peristov, an artist and mammoth ivory collector on the left bank of the river Irtysh near the settlement of Ust’-Ishim in western Siberia in 2008. The age of the man’s bone to be is about 45,000 years old, researchers stated.

In the past, the researchers had proposed modern humans firstly populated Asia by traveling towards southern, coastal route that gave rise to the present-day people of Oceania, while a later, more northern migration, gave rise to mainland Asians. Kelson stated, “the researchers’ evidence for the modern human presence in Siberia 45,000 years ago specifies that the early modern humans were not just migrated to Eurasia through a southern route as previously suggested.”

The bone’s genetic analysis revealed that the man was closely related to present-day Asians and to early Europeans. “From this we conclude that the population to which the Ust’-Ishim individual belonged diverged from the ancestors of present-day Europeans and Asians before, or at around the same time as, these groups diverged from one another,” Kelso said.

The Siberian man carried a similar level of Neanderthal ancestry as present-day Eurasians and the Neanderthal genes moved into the ancestors of this man 7,000 to 13,000 years before he lived, researchers revealed.

The results of the study propose that modern humans and Neanderthals mated around 50,000 to 60,000 years ago, “which is close to the time of the major expansion of modern humans out of Africa and the Middle East,” Kelso said.

The study is published in the Nature journal.

Local Innovation’ Drove Technology Advancement in Ancient Times

September 26, 2014 By Brian Galloway 3 Comments

A novel archaeological study, which was published in the journal, Science stated that, thousands of artifacts from the Paleolithic era recovered from a 325,000 years old place in Armenia. These artifacts enable the researchers to gather data regarding how ancient advancements developed and spread around the globe.

Our Ancestors didn’t rely on Technology Transfer

The researchers believed that ‘local innovation’ rather than ‘population expansion’ drove technological developments into the ancient times. Certainly, this means our ancestors didn’t need to wait for the technology transfer. Instead, they better develop new technologies on their own. This was the way how technologies emerged in Eurasia around 325,000 years ago.

Innovation in the Era of Stone Age

The team of researchers from all around the world, including a group Royal Holloway, University of London had basis to think that an ancient technique named as ‘Levallois’ was used to create hunting weapons. These weapons were actually originated in Africa and transmitted to the other continents. Moreover, this technology was in fact previously part of these earliest Armenian groups, who flourished 325,000-335,000 years ago.

Another technique used in this region is known as ‘Bi-face’ which could be believed as somewhat similar to Levallois. These instruments were firstly analyzed by the researchers and told that the volcanic material was used in them, which was discovered in Nor Geghi in Kotayk Province, Armenia.

With the invention of these ancient instruments, the researchers would be able to get into the fresh and novel insights that ancient groups were believed to be more innovative. These groups have adapted two diverse technologies in order to create instruments which were essential for their hunting culture.

With the expansion of population around the globe, Levallois and biface techniques rapidly extended across Africa to Eurasia. After studying the tools in Armenia, the researchers found that a ‘Bi-face’ technique was not actually derived from Levallois. Though, both techniques are somewhat similar to one another.

A mass of stone-shaped is used in both techniques into hunting tools, which looks like sharp and thin flakes. Though, the major difference is that, with the help of Levallois technique, you can shape tools by prominent flakes from a prepared core evocative of lithic reduction. In contrast, the Bi-face technique is basic. It will use two sides of stone in order to shape out flakes to make big tools such as axes.

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