The 'German' cockroach Blatella germanica is only about 2,000 years old as a species, according to new research. It apparently evolved from a wild Asian roach when it adapted to live and travel with humans.
Our Moon: How Earth's Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are by Rebecca Boyle, 2024
Acclaimed journalist Rebecca Boyle takes readers on a dazzling tour to reveal the intimate role that our 4.51-billion-year-old companion has played in our biological and cultural evolution.
Diverse Headgear Of Hoofed Mammals Evolved From A Common Ancestor, study from Baruch College & CUNY Graduate Center, published by Communications Biology
More discussion on that preprint (yes just a preprint and getting Nature commentary!) about when exactly did the #Neanderthal gene flow into modern humans happen. Acc to Iasi et al, from 47 Ka for about 6000 years. Interesting here is the 'introgression deserts' with immediate selection against Nean genes for certain areas.
Viele Dinosaurier entwickelten sich aufgrund starker Klimaschwankungen zu Warmblütern. Eine neue Studie aus Spanien zeigt, wie diese Information helfen kann, die heutige Welt besser zu verstehen. Von Laura Strätling, SWR.
A decent summary of the discussion over shrinkage of brain size in Homo sapiens in the past 100,000 years.
One very strong point is made by Eva #Jablonka, linking reduction of brain size to stratification and class society:
'Jablonka argues that if even if brains did shrink when complex societies emerged, it doesn't necessarily follow that smaller brains were necessarily an adaptive response.
"If 3,000 years ago much larger more complex societies emerged, this could correlate with much greater differences in social classes. If, as a consequence the majority of people were poor, then we know that poverty and malnutrition and things like that would compromise the developing brain."'
We would agree, metabolic and energetic/nutrient constraint is likely important. Marta #Lahr also suggests a link to nutrient deficiency associating to onset of agriculture.
A significant implication is that the super large brains of our ancestors came about through #egalitarianism and strong ethics of #sharing vital nutrients to mothers and children.
How cockroaches spread around the globe to become the pest we know today.
From AP: "A new study uses genetics to chart cockroaches’ spread across the globe, from humble beginnings in southeast Asia to Europe and beyond. The findings span thousands of years of cockroach history and suggest the pests may have scuttled across the globe by hitching a ride with another species: people."
menopause results in females increasing their opportunity for intergenerational help by increasing their lifespan overlap with their grandoffspring and offspring without increasing their reproductive overlap with their daughters. #menopause#whales#evolution
👋 We have extended the deadline for this post-doc position in our lab! 👇
I am looking for candidates for 2-years #postdoc position, working on my #ERC project, developing a new statistical method to infer the distribution of the effect sizes of QTL. More information here : https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/225408
Exciting opportunity to work in Paris, in the middle of the Jardin des Plantes!
Trotz gleicher genetischer Ausstattung sehen manche Tiere der selben Art unterschiedlich aus. Warum? Forschende des @MPI_Bio in Tübingen fanden Antworten im "Monstermaul" und anderen Mündern von Fadenwürmern. Julia Hansen erklärt sie uns: https://www.laborjournal.de/editorials/2995.php#Evolution
"The insect world is full of species of parasitic wasps that spend their infancy eating other insects alive. And for reasons that scientists don’t fully understand, they have repeatedly adopted and tamed wild, disease-causing viruses and turned them into biological weapons. Half a dozen examples already are described, and new research hints at many more."
I'm going to catch us up on some interesting science for a couple of days. A break from the daily horror show.
"Survival of the nicest: have we got evolution the wrong way round?
How humans, animals and even single-celled organisms cooperate to survive suggests there’s more to life than just competition, argues a cheering study of evolutionary biology." #cooperation#evolution https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00999-5