Monthly Archives: März 2012

Newly discovered foot points to a new kid on the hominin block

TranslationIt seems that “Lucy” was not the only hominin on the block in northern Africa about 3 million years ago. A team of researchers that included Johns Hopkins University geologist Naomi Levin has announced the discovery of a partial foot skeleton with characteristics (such as an opposable big toe bone) that don’t match those of Lucy, the human ancestor (or hominin) known to inhabit that region and considered by many to be the ancestor of all modern humans. The discovery is important because it provides first-ever evidence that at least two pre-human ancestors lived between 3 million and 4 million …

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Vonderach: Regionalcharaktere

TranslationRegionalcharaktere – gibt es so etwas überhaupt? Der Historiker und Anthropologe Andreas Vonderach zeigt in diesem Buch anhand von empirischen Daten, dass vielen landläufigen Stereotypen reale Verhaltensunterschiede zugrunde liegen. Darüber hinaus wertet er 364 ernst zu nehmende Regionalcharakter-Beschreibungen aus der Zeit von 1800 bis 1950 aus, z. B. von Theodor Fontane, Gustav Freytag und Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl. So entsteht ein detailliertes Bild der regionalen Verhaltenseigentümlichkeiten im ganzen deutschen Sprachgebiet im 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert, ergänzt durch eine Sammlung historischer Belege seit dem Mittelalter. Auf dieser Grundlage setzt sich Vonderach mit der psychologischen Wirkungsweise, dem Alter und den Ursachen der …

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Unbekannte Vormenschenart in Ostafrika entdeckt

Translation3,4 Millionen Jahre alte Fußknochen stammen aus der gleichen Zeit wie der Australopithecus Forscher haben in Äthiopien das Fußskelett einer bisher unbekannten Vormenschenart entdeckt. Die 3,4 Millionen Jahre alten Knochen unterscheiden sich deutlich von denen des zeitgleich lebenden Vormenschen Australopithecus afarensis. Der Fuß sei affenähnlicher und weniger stark an den aufrechten Gang angepasst, berichten die Forscher im Fachmagazin “Nature”. “Dieses Fußfossil ist der erste starke Beweis dafür, dass vor drei bis vier Millionen Jahren in Afrika mehrere verschiedene Typen von Vormenschen nebeneinander existierten”, schreiben Yohannes Haile-Selassie vom Cleveland Museum of Natural History und seine Kollegen. Quelle: scinexx | Unbekannte Vormenschenart …

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‘Lucy’ lived among close cousins

TranslationA team of scientists has announced the discovery of a 3.4 million-year-old partial foot from the Woranso-Mille area of the Afar region of Ethiopia. The fossil foot did not belong to a member of “Lucy’s” species, Australopithecus afarensis, the famous early human ancestor. Research on this new specimen indicates that more than one species of early human ancestor existed between 3 and 4 million years ago with different methods of locomotion. Quelle: ‘Lucy’ lived among close cousins: Discovery of foot fossil confirms two human ancestor species co-existed.  

DNA traces cattle back to a small herd domesticated around 10,500 years ago

TranslationDNA Traces Cattle Back to a Small Herd Domesticated Around 10,500 Years Ago ScienceDaily (Mar. 27, 2012) — All cattle are descended from as few as 80 animals that were domesticated from wild ox in the Near East some 10,500 years ago, according to a new genetic study. An international team of scientists from the CNRS and National Museum of Natural History in France, the University of Mainz in Germany, and UCL in the UK were able to conduct the study by first extracting DNA from the bones of domestic cattle excavated in Iranian archaeological sites. These sites date to …

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The evolution of the human face

TranslationThe face is an important aspect of our phenotype. So important that facial recognition is one of many innate reflexive cognitive competencies. By this, I mean that you can recognize a face in a gestalt manner, just like you can recognize a set of three marbles. You don’t have to think about it in a step-by-step fashion. Particular types of brain injuries can actually result in disablement of this faculty, and a minority of humans seem to lack it altogether at birth (prosopagnosia). That’s why I’ve long been interested in the genetic architecture and evolution of craniofacial traits. I long …

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“Wird Selektion salonfähig?”

TranslationDie Debatte um die Pränataldiagnostik kommt zurück und bringt altbekannte Fragen mit. Eine davon lautet: „Dürfen Eltern das Recht haben, die eigenen Kinder in einem frühen Entwicklungsstadium während der Schwangerschaft auf Gen-Krankheiten zu testen und sich im Fall der Fälle dagegen entscheiden, es zu bekommen?“ Die Gegner moderner Diagnosemethoden meinen: Nein. Ein Anlass für neue Wortmeldungen war unter anderem, dass der 21. März der Welt-Down-Syndrom-Tag war. Diesen Tag gibt es seit 2006, im vergangenen November wurde er von den Vereinten Nationen offiziell anerkannt. Er soll das öffentliche Bewusstsein für die Problematik des Down-Syndroms steigern. Betroffene besitzen ein dreifaches Vorkommen des …

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Mondgestein kam einst von der Erde

TranslationNeue Messungen stellen gängige Lehrmeinung zur Mondentstehung in Frage Entgegen bisherigen Annahmen besteht der Mond größtenteils aus Erdgestein – einstigen Trümmerteilen unseres Planeten. Das zeigen Vergleichsanalysen eines internationalen Forscherteams. Die Isotopenverteilung des chemischen Elements Titan im Mondgestein ähnele dem der Erde bis auf wenige Millionstel Teile. Daher müsse das lunare Material vorwiegend aus dem Erdmantel stammen, berichten die Forscher im Fachmagazin “Nature Geoscience”. Dieses Ergebnis widerspricht allerdings der gängigen Lehrmeinung. Denn nach dieser soll der Mond zu großen Teilen aus den Trümmern des marsgroßen Planetenvorläufers Theia entstanden sein, der einst mit der jungen Erde kollidierte. Quelle: scinexx | Mondgestein kam …

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Spotting ancient sites from space

TranslationFor decades, working as an archaeologist meant being, as Jason Ur, the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, puts it, “the guy with the muddy boots.” Ur and researchers like him may soon be able to avoid some of that mud, however, thanks to a system he developed that uses computers to scour satellite images for telltale clues of human habitation. Already, he said, the system has uncovered thousands of potential ancient settlements that might reveal clues to the earliest complex human societies. Quelle: Spotting ancient sites, from space.

African American athletes have more European mtDNA than the general AA population

TranslationDoes anyone have a theory why this is the case? American Journal of Physical Anthropology DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0838.2010.01289.x Importance of mitochondrial haplotypes and maternal lineage in sprint performance among individuals of West African ancestry M. Deason et al. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is inherited solely along the matriline, giving insight into both ancestry and prehistory. Individuals of sub-Saharan ancestry are overrepresented in sprint athletics, suggesting a genetic advantage. The purpose of this study was to compare the mtDNA haplogroup data of elite groups of Jamaican and African-American sprinters against respective controls to assess any differences in maternal lineage. The first hypervariable region …

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Eugenik 2.0:Why should the baby live?

TranslationIn einem im März veröffentlichten Artikel im Journal of Medical Ethics stellen die im australischen Melbourne lehrenden Philosophen Alberto Giublilini und Francesca Minerva die These auf, dass ein Fötus und ein geborenes Kind vergleichbar sind und daher die Tötung auch nach der Geburt moralisch unter gewissen Umständen vertretbar sei. Eine in der angelsächsischen Fachwelt inzwischen heftig diskutierte These: After-birth abortion: why should the baby live? Abortion is largely accepted even for reasons that do not have anything to do with the fetus’ health. By showing that (1) both fetuses and newborns do not have the same moral status as actual …

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Die Indo-europäischen Sprachfamilien

TranslationAnthropology.net hat eine nette Grafik erstellt, auf der die indoeuropäischen Sprachzweige dargstellt sind.    

Were Some Neandertals Brown-Eyed Girls?

TranslationThere’s a report in Science about a new short paper about Neandertal pigmentation genetics: In museums around the world, reproductions of Neandertals sport striking blue or green eyes, pale skin, and gingery hair. Now new DNA analysis suggests that two of the most closely studied Neandertals—a pair of females from Croatia—were actually brown-eyed girls, with brunette tresses and tawny skin to match. The results could help shed new light on the evolution of the family that includes both modern humans and Neandertals, who died out some 30,000 years ago. The study has provoked deep skepticism among several outside researchers, however, …

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Northwest Eurasians + Southwest Eurasians + Mesolithic survivors = modern Europeans

TranslationEurogenes Genetic Ancestry Project: Northwest Eurasians + Southwest Eurasians + Mesolithic survivors = modern Europeans For a long time, it was generally accepted that Europeans were direct descendants of Palaeolithic settlers of the continent, with some Middle Eastern ancestry in the Mediterranean regions, courtesy of Neolithic farmers. However, in the last few years, largely thanks to ancient DNA results, it dawned on most people that such a scenario was unrealistic. It now seems that Europe was populated after the Ice Age in a big way, by multiple waves of migrants from almost all directions, but especially from the southeast. .. …

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Sandwalk: Do Human Races Exist?

Scientific American: Does Race Exist?

TranslationLarry Moran is a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Toronto.  He is discussing that old question once more in his blog “Sandwalk”: The current moral position is a sort of ‘biological egalitarianism’. This dominant position emerged in recent decades largely to correct grave historical injustices, including genocide, that were committed with the support of pseudoscientific understandings of group diversity. The racial-hygiene theory promoted by German geneticists Fritz Lenz, Eugene Fischer and others during the Nazi era is one notorious example of such pseudoscience. Biological egalitarianism is the view that no or almost no meaningful genetically …

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