Newcastle University, UK - Tectonically-driven oxidant production in the hot biosphere [Scholarly Article - Nature Communications, August 2022]

Title:

Tectonically-driven oxidant production in the hot biosphere 

 

Authors:

Jordan Stone, School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK

John O. Edgar, School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK

Jamie A. Gould, Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK

& 

Jon Telling, School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK 

 

Published:

Nature Communications, 8 August 2022

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32129-y

 

Abstract:

Genomic reconstructions of the common ancestor to all life have identified genes involved in H2O2 and O2 cycling. Commonly dismissed as an artefact of lateral gene transfer after oxygenic photosynthesis evolved, an alternative is a geological source of H2O2 and O2 on the early Earth. Here, we show that under oxygen-free conditions high concentrations of H2O2 can be released from defects on crushed silicate rocks when water is added and heated to temperatures close to boiling point, but little is released at temperatures <80 °C. This temperature window overlaps the growth ranges of evolutionary ancient heat-loving and oxygen-respiring Bacteria and Archaea near the root of the Universal Tree of Life. We propose that the thermal activation of mineral surface defects during geological fault movements and associated stresses in the Earth’s crust was a source of oxidants that helped drive the (bio)geochemistry of hot fractures where life first evolved. 

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Ancient Source of Oxygen for Life Discovered Hidden Deep in the Earth’s Crust

by Newcastle University (SciTechDaily, 8 August 2022)

https://scitechdaily.com/ancient-source-of-oxygen-for-life-discovered-hidden-deep-in-the-earths-crust/

Harvard’s New Genetics Research on Ancient Britain Contains Insights on Language, Ancestry, Kinship, Milk [SciTechDaily, January 2022]

Title:

Harvard’s New Genetics Research on Ancient Britain Contains Insights on Language, Ancestry, Kinship, Milk

 

By:

Harvard University, USA - 

 

Published:

SciTechDaily, 7 January 2022

https://scitechdaily.com/harvards-new-genetics-research-on-ancient-britain-contains-insights-on-language-ancestry-kinship-milk/

 

From the article:

New research reveals a major migration to the island of Great Britain 3,000 years ago and offers fresh insights into the languages spoken at the time, the ancestry of present-day England and Wales, and even ancient habits of dairy consumption.  

 

The findings are described in Nature by a team of more than 200 international researchers led by Harvard geneticists David Reich and Nick Patterson. Michael Isakov, a Harvard undergraduate who discovered the existence of the migration, is one of the co-first authors.

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Large-scale migration into Britain during the Middle to Late Bronze Age

Published in Nature, 22 December 2021

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04287-4

A high-resolution picture of kinship practices in an Early Neolithic tomb

Published in Nature, 22 December 2021

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04241-4

Homo sapiens origins and evolution in the Kalahari Basin, southern Africa [Scholarly Article - Evolutionary Anthropology, August 2021]

Title:

Homo sapiens origins and evolution in the Kalahari Basin, southern Africa 

 

Author:

Jayne Wilkins 

ARC DECRA research fellow at the Australian Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith University, Australia

 

Published:

Evolutionary Anthropology, (First published) 07 August 2021 

https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.21914 

 

Abstract: 

The Kalahari Basin, southern Africa preserves a rich archeological record of human origins and evolution spanning the Early, Middle and Late Pleistocene. Since the 1930s, several stratified and dated archeological sites have been identified and investigated, together with numerous open-air localities that provide landscape-scale perspectives. However, next to recent discoveries from nearby coastal regions, the Kalahari Basin has remained peripheral to debates about the origins of Homo sapiens. Though the interior region of southern Africa is generally considered to be less suitable for hunter-gatherer occupation than coastal and near-coastal regions, especially during glacial periods, the archeological record documents human presence in the Kalahari Basin from the Early Pleistocene onwards, and the region is not abandoned during glacial phases. Furthermore, many significant behavioral innovations have an early origin in the Kalahari Basin, which adds support to poly-centric, pan-African models for the emergence of our species.

 

Neanderthal and Denisovan Y Chromosomes Sequenced – Surprise When Compared to Modern Human DNA

Title:

Neanderthal and Denisovan Y Chromosomes Sequenced – Surprise When Compared to Modern Human DNA

 

By:

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft 

Published:

SciTechDaily, 26 september 2020

https://scitechdaily.com/neanderthal-and-denisovan-y-chromosomes-sequenced-surprise-when-compared-to-modern-human-dna/

 

From the article:

In 1997, the very first Neanderthal DNA sequence — just a small part of the mitochondrial genome — was determined from an individual discovered in the Neander Valley, Germany, in 1856. Since then, improvements in molecular techniques have enabled scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology to determine high quality sequences of the autosomal genomes of several Neanderthals, and led to the discovery of an entirely new group of extinct humans, the Denisovans, who were relatives of the Neanderthals in Asia.

 

Short Article: Princeton University - Modern Africans and Europeans may have more Neanderthal ancestry than previously thought

Title:
Modern Africans and Europeans may have more Neanderthal ancestry than previously thought

Author:
Cell Press

Published:
Phys.org, 30 January 2020

From the article:
"Neanderthal DNA sequences may be more common in modern Africans than previously thought, and different non-African populations have levels of Neanderthal ancestry surprisingly similar to each other, finds a study publishing January 30 in the journal Cell. Researchers arrived at these findings by developing a new statistical method, called IBDmix, to identify Neanderthal sequences in the genomes of modern humans. The results also suggest that African genomes contain Neanderthal sequences in part due to back-migration of ancestors of present-day Europeans."

To read this article:
https://phys.org/news/2020-01-modern-africans-europeans-neanderthal-ancestry.html