Dlium

NEWS - Researchers at the IBS Center for Climate Physics (ICCP) at Pusan National University in South Korea suggest that the patchwork of ecosystems found in mountainous regions played a key role in human evolution. Using a vast dataset of fossils, artifacts, high-resolution landscapes and 3 million-year-long simulations of Earth’s climate, a team of scientists is painting a clearer picture of how and why early humans adapted to rugged landscapes. Hominins are often found in and near mountainous regions. Now Elke Zeller and Axel Timmermann have helped explain why so many of our evolutionary relatives preferred to be “highlanders” rather than “lowlanders.” Mountainous regions are rich in biodiversity, providing a range of environmental conditions in which different species of plants and animals thrive. Steep areas typically exhibit a greater diversity, density of ecosystems and vegetation types, known as biomes. This diversity of biomes was attractive to early humans because it provided...

NEWS - A human rights-based approach to coral reef protection can ensure governments are held accountable for protecting marine ecosystems, empowering local and indigenous communities to demand sustainable solutions and climate justice. An estimated one billion people globally depend on healthy coral reefs for food security, coastal protection, tourism revenues and other services. If coral reefs and ecosystems are lost, the impacts on human health and economic well-being would be catastrophic. Unfortunately, the window of opportunity to conserve coral reefs is closing, and despite a range of protective measures, coral reefs around the world continue to degrade. Researchers report on the results of a multidisciplinary collaboration between the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and The State University of New York and the University of Konstanz. “2024 marks the fourth global coral bleaching event impacting more than 50% of the world’s coral reefs and other stressors such as pollutio...

NEWS - Food fermentation using microorganisms is the oldest food processing practice in human history. Milk fermentation can be traced back to 6000–4000 BC in India and Mediterranean peoples produced and consumed cheese as early as 7000 BC. However, little is known about the history of microbial use and the associated history of cultural transmission. In particular, the evolutionary trajectories, particularly the functional adaptations of these fermenting microorganisms through long-term interactions with humans, remain unclear. Recently, Chinese researchers conducted the world’s first metagenomic study of Bronze Age kefir cheese excavated from the Xiaohe cemetery, the oldest dairy remains known to date. Molecular evidence from ancient fermented milk residues serves as a powerful tool for understanding fermentation-microbe interactions. The researchers have now extracted high-quality genomes of Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens ( Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens ) from three ancient cheese s...

NEWS - Researchers report Homo neanderthalensis , found in a cave system in France’s Rhône Valley, represents a previously undescribed ancient lineage that diverged from other known Neanderthals about 100,000 years ago and remained genetically isolated for more than 50,000 years. Genomic analysis suggests the bones of the Neanderthal dubbed “Thorin” lived in a small, isolated community. The new discovery could shed light on the still-mysterious reasons for the species’ extinction and suggests that late Neanderthals had a broader population structure than previously thought. “There was only one genetically homogeneous Neanderthal population going extinct, but now we know that there were at least two populations at the time,” said Tharsika Vimala of the University of Copenhagen. The Thorin population spent 50,000 years without exchanging genes with other Neanderthal populations. Over 50 millennia, two populations of Neanderthals, living about a ten-day walk from each other, lived side by...

NEWS - “Your enemy is our enemy” is a motto as old as the existence of animals on earth, and new research suggests it first occurred in big primates at least 5-6 million years ago. A perceived out-group threat can increase in-group cohesion. Scientists have long known the mechanisms that increase in-group cohesion in societies shaped by out-group threat. However, the distribution and selection history of this association with intergroup relationships have varied across species. In the face of threat from other groups, humans ( Homo sapiens ), chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes ), and a number of other species draw closer together in their own groups. Since Charles Darwin, the link between out-group threat and in-group cohesion has been thought to be an adaptation to group-based competition. Over the years, studies ranging from chimpanzees to mongooses have found evidence to support this view, but the crucial question remains: what about species without strong inter-group competition? Jame...

NEWS - Low-social monkeys wash their food in puddles to remove pebbles, while high-social monkeys eat the food with the sand attached. Non-dominant long-tailed macaques ( Macaca fascicularis ) diligently wash their teeth, while dominants are indifferent to dental health. The researchers verified the disposable-soma hypothesis that monkeys have a strong aversion to sand and that removing it is a deliberate act. A choice to balance the long-term benefits of reducing tooth decay with immediate energy needs is an important predictor of reproductive fitness. Few animal species have the cognitive abilities needed to remove pebbles from the surface of food that damages teeth. Some monkey populations wash food when puddles are easily accessible, but the tendency varies within groups for unknown reasons. Jessica Rosien, an anthropologist at Dartmouth College in Hanover, and colleagues conducted a series of experiments in a colony of M. fascicularis inhabiting Koram Island, Thailand, to explo...

BLOG - On October 28, 2004, a paper was published in Nature describing the dwarf hominin we know today as Homo floresiensis that has shocked the world. The report changed the geographical landscape of early humans that previously stated that the Pleistocene Asia was only represented by two species, Homo erectus and Homo sapiens . The report titled "A new small-bodied hominin from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia" written by Peter Brown and Mike J. Morwood from the University of New England with Thomas Sutikna, Raden Pandji Soejono, Jatmiko, E. Wahyu Saptomo and Rokus Awe Due from the National Archaeology Research Institute (ARKENAS), Indonesia, presents more diversity in the genus Homo. “Immediately, my fever vanished. I couldn’t sleep well that night. I couldn’t wait for sunrise. In the early morning we went to the site, and when we arrived in the cave, I didn’t say a thing because both my mind and heart couldn’t handle this incredible moment. I just went down...

NEWS - The remains of Homo floresiensis found by Australian-New Zealand archaeologist, Professor Mike Morwood (1950-2013) in Liang Bua cave, Flores, in 2003 gradually revealed its evolutionary origins. The very small adult leg bones belonging to the small-brained "Hobbit of Flores" are at least 700,000 years old. Previous archaeological evidence suggests that these tiny humans inhabited Liang Bua around 50,000 years ago, when Homo sapiens had long settled in southern Australia which ultimately gave rise to much debate about the origins of Flores humans. A hypothesis is that H. floresiensis is a hybrid of early Asian Homo erectus . Another hypothesis is the remains of a more ancient hominin from Africa before H. erectus and small-bodied from the start. If so, the likely candidates are Homo habilis or Australopithecus afarensis . Another hominin fossil ever found on Flores is the Mata Menge site 75 km to the east. The earlier site in the tropical grasslands of the So...

NEWS - The island of Sulawesi has long been known to hold a treasure trove of the world's oldest paintings. Now scientists led by Maxime Aubert , archaeologist and geochemist, of Griffith University in Australia and his team have traced the history back several thousand years and identified narrative representations in time for the first time. The depiction of human figures and wild boars in the Liang Karambuang Cave in the Maros Pangkep karst region of Sulawesi is at least 51,200 years old. The oldest painting to date is a depiction of a pig from Liang Tiedongang, which is about 45,500 years old. The team reports to Nature that the new paintings show that modern humans were depicting narrative scenes much earlier than previously thought. Determining when someone painted or carved an image on a rock poses several problems for archaeologists. The rock itself could be several million years old. That's why the researchers focused on what's on top of the painting: a layer of...

OPINION - As a Wallacean and Darwinian, I have always viewed life from the perspective of evolutionism. I see the world of plants and animals always using evolutionary theories. How a species develops functional organs, forms morphology, adapts to ecosystems and so on as a natural laws. This perspective ultimately forms my framework for thinking about various things, including the way I see myself, everyday problems and the way I think about big things such as economics, geopolitics, war and so on using an evolutionary perspective. Alfred Russel Wallace, Charles Darwin and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck are three great figures who really inspired me. They are well known as pioneers of evolutionary theories. They start from small things in the sub-subject of biology, although they also discuss geology and so on. Wallace focused on species adaptation and Darwin on sexual selection. Both developed evolutionary thinking using observational methods. Lamarck focused on structural morphology using l...