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Human ancestors: more gatherers than hunters?
11-12-2007 · EurekAlert!Chimpanzees crave roots and tubers even when food is plentiful above ground, according to a new study in PNAS that raises questions about the relative importance of meat for brain evolution.
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Keywords: human, ancestors, gatherers, hunters, ancestor, gatherer, hunter
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- UCSB study on sibling detection mechanism highlighted in Nature
02-15-2007 · EurekAlert!
A team of researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has found evidence of a nonconscious mechanism in the human brain that identifies genetic siblings on the basis of cues that guided our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Their findings will be published in the Feb. 15 issue of the science journal Nature.
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- Sea anemone genome provides new view of our multi-celled ancestors
07-05-2007 · EurekAlert!
The genome of the starlet sea anemone is nearly as complex as the human genome, according to UC Berkeley and Joint Genome Institute researchers who have completed the first analysis of the animal's genes. Because of this similarity, it is providing major insights into the common ancestor of eumetazoans, a group that includes not only humans and sea anemones, but nearly all multi-celled animals.
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- Evidence from ancient European graves raises questions about ritual human sacrifice
05-29-2007 · EurekAlert!
A fascinating new paper explores ancient multiple graves and raises the possibility that hunter gatherers in what is now Europe may have practiced ritual human sacrifice. This practice -- well-known in large, stratified societies -- supports emerging research that argues that the level of social complexity reached in the distant past by groups of hunter gatherers was well beyond that of many more recent small bands of modern foragers.
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- Male voice pitch predicts reproductive success in hunter-gatherers
09-25-2007 · EurekAlert!
According to a new study by researchers with Harvard University, McMaster University and Florida State University, male hunter-gatherers with lower-pitched voices have increased reproductive success, possibly as a result of increased access to mates. The study involved the Hadza tribe of Tanzania, who live much as humans did 200,000 years ago.
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- The 'MIP-MAP' game: Indian bug is the ancestor of Crohn's disease pathogen
10-02-2007 · EurekAlert!
An Indian team of researchers led by Seyed E. Hasnain of the Institute of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, India has found that a seemingly unknown mycobacterial organism Mycobacterium indicus pranii could be the earliest ancestor of the 'generalist' branch of mycobacterial pathogens. The 'generalist' bacteria infect anything from cockroaches to human and are capable of surviving in soil and water as against human adapted 'specialists' such as tubercle and leprosy bacilli.
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- These legs were made for fighting
03-11-2007 · EurekAlert!
Ape-like human ancestors known as australopiths had short legs because a squat physique and stance helped the males fight over access to females, a University of Utah study concludes. "The old argument was that they retained short legs to help them climb trees that still were an important part of their habitat," says biologist David Carrier. "My argument is that they retained short legs because short legs helped them fight."
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- Facial attraction -- choice of sexual partner shaped the human face
08-13-2007 · EurekAlert!
Men with large jaws, flaring cheeks and large eyebrows are sexy, at least in the eyes of our ancestors, researchers at the Natural History Museum have discovered. Facial attractiveness played a major role in shaping human evolution, as studies on our fossil ancestors have shown our choice of sexual partner has shaped the human face. The findings appear in the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE.
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- Phoenix rising: Scientists resuscitate a 5 million-year-old retrovirus
10-30-2006 · EurekAlert!
A team of scientists has reconstructed the DNA sequence of a 5-million-year-old retrovirus and shown that it is able to produce infectious particles. The retrovirus -- named Phoenix -- is the ancestor of a large family of mobile DNA elements, some of which may play a role in cancer. The study is the first to generate an infectious retrovirus from a mobile element in the human genome. The findings are reported in Genome Research.
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- Unraveling where chimp and human brains diverge
11-13-2006 · EurekAlert!
Six million years ago, chimpanzees and humans diverged from a common ancestor and evolved into unique species. Now UCLA scientists have identified a new way to pinpoint the genes that separate us from our closest living relative -- and make us uniquely human.
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- Human ancestors more primitive that once thought
09-20-2007 · EurekAlert!
A team of researchers, including Herman Pontzer, Ph.D., assistant professor of physical anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, has determined through analysis of the earliest known hominid fossils outside of Africa, recently discovered in Dmanisi, Georgia, the former Soviet republic, that the first human ancestors to inhabit Eurasia were more primitive than previously thought.
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