There are some Neandertal in us

Two papers published by Science on the May 7th 2010 issue posit that Neandertal genes exist in all of us (modern humans). The paper by Green et al. drafts the sequence of the Neandertal genome from three Neandertal individuals and compared them with the genomes of five modern humans, while the paper by Burbano et al. explains the method for sequencing target regions of Neandertal DNA.

John Hawks from John Hawks Weblog has a detailed write-up of these two papers. Check out his post, NEANDERTALS LIVE! Also check out Zacharoo's post from Lawn Chair Anthropology, Neandertal Nuclear Genome: Multiregional Evolution is the new Out of Africa.

The sequencing of the Neandertal genome brings back the age old question of human evolution: Multiregional or Out of Africa?

Link to papers:

• A Draft Sequence of the Neandertal Genome by Richard E. Green et al. (2010)
• Targeted Investigation of the Neandertal Genome by Array-Based Sequence Capture by Hernán A. Burbano et al. (2010)

Using mice to assess the degree of relatedness in chacma baboons

The concept of "family" and relatedness are prevalent in the animal kingdom. Individuals seem to be able to tell if they are related to one another, probably in effort to avoid incest breeding (to increase fitness). While "phenotype matching" is proposed to be one of the kin recognition mechanism between animals to assess their relatedness, "phenotype matching" using olfactory cues (body odor) have been poorly investigated and tested in anthropoids.

A chacma baboon.

Célérier et al. (2010) uses mice to assess the relatedness of chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) through olfactory cues. But, why mice you asked?

Human noses are often quite weak compared with the rest of the animal kingdom, making it hard for us to find out if baboons can be told apart by smell. Researchers therefore decided to draft much better noses — those of mice. The researchers swabbed the armpits and groins of wild chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) from two different troops of the primates in Namibia. They next tested 24 adult male Swiss mice to scents from 14 adult female baboons. They chose female baboons partly because "some male mice were peeing on male baboon odors as if they were in competition," said researcher Aurélie Célérier, a behavioral biologist at the CNRS and the University of Montpellier II, France.

Their research shows that mice can detect odor differences between individuals of the same sex and age class in another mammal species, and that the mice can perceive a higher similarity between baboons that are related than baboons that are unrelated. These results show that olfactory cues may play a role assessing the degree of relatedness in among individual baboons. Detective mice assess relatedness in baboons using olfactory cues by Célérier et al. (2010) was published on The Journal of Experimental Biology. Also read Detective Mice Help Scientists Study Baboons by Charles Q. Choi on LiveScience.

Anyone has access to this article, by any chance?

Locating Land of Punt Using Mummified Baboons

Land of Punt, sometimes referred to as Ta-netjer (God's land) by ancient Egyptians was a place where pharaohs organized trading expeditions to. For the ancient Egyptians, Land of Punt is the land of fragrances, giraffes and electrum, among many other exotic items.  Live baboons were among many items brought back from Land of Punt to Egypt. Researchers now think that they know where Land of Punt is, thanks to the mummified baboons found in Thebes and Valley of the Kings.

Mummified baboon, like the one above, was used by researchers to locate the Land of Punt. 

Using the hair of the mummified baboons from both location, researchers ran an oxygen isotope analysis to estimate where these baboons were from (therefore revealing the location of Land of Punt). By comparing the values of oxygen isotope of the mummified baboons to present day baboon populations, all specimens from Eritrea and some from Ethiopia are deemed good matches by the researchers. Thus, Land of Punt is believed to be in Eritrea and the eastern parts of Ethiopia. Yemen, Somalia and Mozambique have been suggested as possible locations but readings of baboons from these locations do not match those of the mummified ones. (Although no baboon samples from Yemen were used, researchers are confident enough to posit that baboons from Yemen would "look an awful lot like a baboon from Somalia isotopically").

Aside from the fact that the researchers failed to obtain baboon samples from Yemen, it's crucial to point out that researchers were able to only identify the origin of the baboon in Valley of the Kings (meaning that the isotope reading from this one sole baboon was used to match up with all the present day baboon isotope reading). The mummified baboon from Thebes have spent some time living as a pet so its oxygen isotope had changed due to ingestion of local diet.

Read more about this discovery on Heritage Key: Baboon Mummy Tests Reveal Ethiopia and Eritrea as Ancient Egyptians' 'Land of Punt'.

New fossil primate species found in Catalonia garbage dump: Pliopithecus canmatensis

The "discovery" of this new fossil primate species, thought to be more than 11 million years old, is as interesting as how it was found. Quoting from EurekAlert, a jaw bone of this newly discovered fossil primate species was found in a rubbish dump in Catalonia, Spain. Yes, you read that right ... rubbish dump! First of all, out of curiosity , who throws out a fossil. Secondly, I want to know how this fossil was "found". Although I do have a suspicion that the fossil was not thrown out but was just coincidentally dug up in a rubbish dump. Who knows ... Maybe it's just another lost in translation scenario.

The lower jaw of Pliopithecus canmatensis. Photo from EurekAlert.

Now back to the fossil. It seems that from the molars and lower jaw, the fossil belongs to the genus Pliopithecus, an extinct family of primitive Catarrhines (Old World Monkeys). This new species was named Pliopithecus canmatensis in honor of the rubbish dump it was found (the rubbish dump of Can Mata in the Vallès-Penedès basin of Catalonia, Spain). At a glance, the dental formula on the lower jaw seems consistent with those of Catarrhines, 2:1:2:3.

"Based on the anatomical, palaeobiographical and biostratigraphic information available, the most probable evolutionary scenario for this group is that the Pliopithecoidea were the first Catarrhini to disperse from Africa to Eurasia, where they experienced an evolutionary radiation in a continent initially deserted of other anthropoids (apes)", David Alba, main author of the study and researcher at the Catalan Institute for Palaeontology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), explains to SINC.

- EurekAlert, Discovery of a primate more than 11 million years old.

The analysis of this fossil, A new species of Pliopithecus Gervais, 1849 (Primates: Pliopithecidae) from the Middle Miocene (MN8) of Abocador de Can Mata (els Hostalets de Pierola, Catalonia, Spain), was published on American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

Insectivory in Geladas

Thought I'd share this interesting observation about desert locust outbreaks in the Guassa Plateau, Ethiopia.  Fashing et al. (2010) observed that geladas (Theropithecus gelada), Ethiopian wolves (Canis simensis) and thick billed raven (Corvus crassirostris) feast on locusts in large quantities during an outbreak and immediately after in the Guassa Plateau. Although geladas are highly specialized herbivores, the observation suggest a surprisingly flexible diet shift during these outbreaks.

I tried to access the article but unfortunately it is paid-only. (Thank you Michelle, from Spider Monkey Tales, for a copy of the article). Judging from the abstract, it seems that this observation was done only during the locust outbreak of June 2009. It would be interesting to conduct a continuous study of this phenomenon to see if this diet shift really is a trend, like the authors suggested.

Reference:
Fashing, PJ. Nguyen, N. Fashing, NJ. 2010. Behavior of geladas and other endemic wildlife during a desert locust outbreak at Guassa, Ethiopia: ecological and conservation implications. Primates Retrieved April 19, 2010, from http://www.springerlink.com/content/w34871337p7070l1/ DOI:10.1007/s10329-010-0194-6