Missing Y chromosome kept Sapiens apart from Neanderthals

Modern humans diverged from Neanderthals some 600,000 years ago – and a new study shows the Y chromosome might be what kept the two species separate.

It seems we were genetically incompatible with our ancient relatives – and male fetuses conceived through sex with Neanderthal males would have miscarried. We knew that some cross-breeding between us and Neanderthals happened more recently – around 100,000 to 60,000 years ago.

Neanderthal genes have been found in our genomes, on X chromosomes, and have been linked to traits such as skin colour, fertility and even depression and addiction. Now, an analysis of a Y chromosome from a 49,000-year-old male Neanderthal found in El Sidrón, Spain, suggests the chromosome has gone extinct seemingly without leaving any trace in modern humans.

This could simply be because it drifted out of the human gene pool or, as the new study suggests, it could be because genetic differences meant that hybrid offspring who had this chromosome were infertile – a genetic dead end.

Modern men have no traces of Neanderthal DNA on their Y chromosome, the first-ever analysis of the male Neanderthal sex chromosome has revealed.

Human sacrifice may have helped build and sustain social class systems

Elaborate ritual killings such as being crushed under a newly built canoe and decapitation after being rolled off a house laid the foundations of class-based structures in modern societies, a new study of Austronesian cultures suggests.

Blogger Comment:

In terms of Joseph Campbell's four functions of mythology, this is the sociological function: justifying and maintaining the social order.  The other functions are the pedagogical, cosmological and mystical.

Exoplanet 55 Cancri e has solid and liquid surfaces

Astronomers have, for the first time, mapped a nearby "super-Earth" exoplanet to find that one hemisphere is almost completely molten rock, while the other half is almost completely solid.

Ancient 'Kite Runner' carried its young attached to its body by threads

A tiny arthropod from 430 million years ago, Aquilonifer spinosus, had a novel way of hauling around its young: it stashed them in individual capsules tethered to its body, like kites at the end of a piece of string.

Homo floresiensis disappeared when Homo sapiens arrived

The disappearance of Homo floresiensis on the Indonesian island of Flores has been pushed back to 50,000 years ago after excavations revealed flaws in the original dating of the controversial species of primitive humans.

Blogger Comment:

We didn't eat them.  No.

Planet Nine might be an exoplanet stolen by the sun

The hypothetical ninth planet at the fringes of our solar system might have been captured from a star passing by long ago.

Genetic map reveals impact of interbreeding with ancient Denisovans and Neanderthals

Researchers have analysed the DNA of 257 individuals from 120 different non-African populations around the world to look for traces of ancestry from Neanderthals and Denisovans — another group of ancient humans that lived at the same time — in the modern human genome.

Previous studies have shown that almost all present-day non-African people possess some Neanderthal DNA, while some people, particularly people from Oceania, also have Denisovan DNA.

The new analysis indicated that modern humans interbred with Denisovans around 100 generations after their trysts with Neanderthals.

Map showing proportion of the genome inferred to be Denisovan in ancestry in diverse non-Africans (with red the highest proportion.

Volcanoes may have caused the Moon's poles to wander

Ice deposits that formed in craters on opposite sides of the Moon three billion years ago indicate it may have once spun on a different axis.

Pluto may have an underground ocean

Despite being so far from the sun, tiny Pluto, which is smaller than Earth's moon, has had an active geologic life from the start, one that continues to present day.

Astronomers see supernova shockwave for first time

The shockwave generated by the explosion of an ageing giant star has been observed by an international team of astronomers.

What do chimp ‘temples’ tell us about the evolution of religion?

Biologists working in the Republic of Guinea found evidence for what seemed to be a “sacred tree” used by chimps, perhaps for some sort of ritual.

Pregnant T rex discovery sheds light on evolution of egg-laying

The fossil of a pregnant teenage Tyrannosaurus rex has been found, shedding light on the evolution of egg-laying as well as on gender differences in the dinosaur.

'Fairy Circles' Explained

The chance discovery of 'fairy circles' in Western Australia's Pilbara region is providing new insight into one of nature's enduring puzzles.  The circles are regularly spaced patches of bare soil that form in uniform hexagonal patterns throughout arid grasslands.

GN-z11: the most remote galaxy ever seen

Astronomers have discovered a galaxy that formed just 400 million years after the Big Bang explosion — the most distant galaxy found to date.

Female neriid flies may seek out semen to nurture another male's offspring

A male's seminal fluid can influence the size of a female's future offspring even when he's not the father, a study of neriid flies has found.

Mercury's carbon-rich crust is surprisingly ancient

Before its planned crash into Mercury last year, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft gave scientists a parting gift. In its final orbits, MESSENGER not only confirmed Mercury's dark hue is due to carbon, but also revealed the carbon was not deposited by impacting comets. Instead, scientists now believe they are seeing remnants of the planet's primordial crust, which likely formed when a global ocean of super-heated magma cooled, allowing minerals to solidify.

The oldest-known fossil of a land-dwelling organism is a fungus

The beautifully preserved filaments from a fungus that lived 440 million years ago are the oldest-known fossils of a land-dwelling organism yet found.

Swallowtail butterfly holds record number of photoreceptors

A species of swallowtail butterfly found in Australasia holds the record for having the largest number of different photoreceptors in its eyes for any insect. The butterfly, known as the common bluebottle (Graphium sarpendon), has no less than 15 classes of photoreceptors.

Ancient volcanic upheaval on Mars

A massive volcano on Mars spewed so much lava 3.5 billion years ago that the weight displaced the Red Planet's outer layers, according to a study that reconstructed the planet's geologic history.

A new particle that dwarfs even the Higgs boson?

It looks like the LHC may have found a surprise massive particle that gives a glimpse into a better – and entirely unexpected – theory of reality.

Nervous system found preserved in 520-million-year-old crustacean-like animal

A fossil of a 520-million-year-old animal is so well preserved that its individual nerve fibres are still visible. The fossil represents the oldest and most detailed central nervous system ever found.

Astronomers trace source of massive energy explosion to distant galaxy

A rare burst of energy lasting less than a millisecond that happened around six billion years ago in a galaxy far, far away has been tracked to its source by scientists for the first time.  The event — known as a fast radio burst (FRB) — is a relatively newly discovered phenomenon with the latest discovery, FRB150418, just the 17th to be found.

Gorillas hum during meals

Gorillas sing and hum when eating, a discovery that could help shed light on how language evolved in early humans.

Sapiens DNA in Neanderthals suggests Homo sapiens left Africa earlier than thought

Remains of a Neanderthal woman who lived around 100,000 years ago in the Altai Mountains of Siberia reveal that human and Neanderthals mated much earlier than previously thought.

* Blogger Note: Neanderthals were humans, and the sapiens that bred with neanderthals clearly regarded them as 'us' not 'them'.  Interbreeding suggests that even 'different species' is an exaggeration.

New species of ancient tropical flower found in amber from the Dominican Republic

The discovery of a new species of ancient flower beautifully preserved in amber indicates that ancestors of today's daisies, mints and tomatoes flourished in Caribbean jungles up to 45 million years ago. The two flower fossils, found in the Dominican Republic, will help scientists understand how asterids — one of the world's three major evolutionary groups of flowering plants — spread around the globe. The amber formed sometime between 15 and 45 million years ago in a geological period known as the mid-tertiary, long before the Americas were joined by the Panama land bridge.

Hubble studies 'super-Earth' atmosphere for first time

The exoplanet, known as 55 Cancri e, orbits blisteringly close to its planet star, exhibiting temperatures of more than 1,700 degrees Celsius. Astronomers had thought it would lose most of its atmosphere due to the intense radiation of its parent star. But data from the Hubble space telescope shows the planet is surrounded by an atmosphere mostly made up of hydrogen and helium like a gas giant, such as Jupiter or Saturn.

DNA sheds light on European upheaval during the Ice Age

The population of Stone Age Europe underwent a radical transformation toward the end of the last Ice Age, according to a study of ancient DNA. The discovery also suggested that non-Africans rapidly dispersed across the world in a single wave around 50,000 years ago — not in multiple waves as previously thought.

Ancient wildebeest-like Rusingoryx had nose similar to hadrosaurs

An ancient herbivore related to the wildebeest had a bizarre nose like a dinosaur that lived tens of millions of years earlier. The fierce-looking Rusingoryx atopocranion, which roamed the savannas of Africa between 55,000 and 75,000 years ago, had large sinuses and a trumpet-like nasal passage.

Hundreds of galaxies behind the Milky Way now mapped

Hundreds of galaxies hidden from view behind the Milky Way have been unveiled in unprecedented detail for the first time. The discovery has provided astronomers with new information about a mysterious gravitational anomaly in intergalactic space known as the Great Attractor.

Aboriginal burning 'had little impact' on erosion rates in Australia's Southern Tablelands

The use of fire by Aborigines to modify their environment had little, if any, impact on the natural erosion processes that shaped parts of south-eastern Australia, a new study has found.

See post from 2013 Genes extinguish Aboriginal fire theory.

Octopuses have dramatic social lives, resolve fights using colour to mark their mood

Octopuses are social animals that change colours to resolve disputes and even throw debris at each other.  Octopuses have generally been viewed as solitary creatures, and their colour-changing abilities primarily as a means to hide from hungry predators.

Ancient Babylonian astronomers used calculus to find Jupiter 1,400 years before Europeans

The earliest known examples of mathematical and geometric astronomy have been identified in a series of ancient Babylonian cuneiform tablets. An analysis of the tablets reveals ancient Babylonians were able to calculate the position of Jupiter using geometric techniques previously believed to have been first used some 1,400 years later in 14th century Europe.

Venus flytrap plants can 'count' to five

Venus flytraps and other carnivorous plants have the ability to count, according to a new study.* The discovery adds to the growing body of evidence that certain plants possess many animal-like abilities, even though they do not have brains.

* Blogger Note: This is not a new finding.  It has been known for decades and reported as such in the early documentaries of David Attenborough.

'Dark noodles' between stars in the Milky Way could be missing matter

Mysterious lumps in gas clouds connecting stars in the Milky Way could comprise a significant amount of the galaxy's missing matter.

Evidence of new giant planet lurking beyond Neptune

Our solar system may have a ninth planet about 10 times the mass of Earth far out beyond Neptune.  Although the planet, dubbed Planet Nine, has not been directly observed, computer simulations of the orbits of several distant objects beyond Neptune indicate it exists.

One planet orbits 1 trillion kilometres away from its star

A distant planet thought to be floating free through space is not so lonely after all, according to a new study that indicates it actually orbits a star a trillion kilometres away from it. The planet, designated 2MASS J2126-8140, takes nearly a million Earth years to orbit its sun, making it easily the largest solar system yet found. 

Woolly mammoth remains indicate humans inhabited the Arctic at least 45,000 years ago

The frozen carcass of a woolly mammoth found in Siberia with unmistakable signs of spear wounds is providing evidence people inhabited Arctic regions thousands of years earlier than previously thought.

Milky Way growth chart reveals how galaxy evolved

Scientists have made a cosmic growth chart of the Milky Way, an innovative blending of data collected by the ongoing Sloan Digital Sky Survey and a new technique to determine the ages of stars.  The analysis shows the galaxy's central disc formed from the inside out, with red giant stars as old as about 13 billion years clustered toward the centre and younger stars about 1 billion years old closer to the disc's edge.

Possible gravitational wave signal

Not for the first time, the world of physics is abuzz with rumours that gravitational waves have been detected.

"Walrus" fossils revealed to be ancient white sperm whale

Scientists say fossils unearthed in 1909 in Santa Barbara, California, that had been wrongly categorised for decades as belonging to a group of extinct walruses, were the remains of a fearsome sperm whale that swam the Pacific Ocean 15 million years ago during the Miocene Epoch.

Scientists teach computers how to learn like humans

Scientists have created a computer model, or algorithm, that captures the unique human ability to grasp new concepts in a study that involved learning unfamiliar handwritten alphabet characters.  The algorithm enabled computers to recognise and draw simple symbols that were indistinguishable from those created by humans.

Kunbarrasaurus

Kunbarrasaurus ieversi, or Kunbarrasaurus, appears to be a primitive ankylosaur, a group of four-legged herbivorous dinosaurs known for their heavy armour and club-like tail.

Moon's orbit was tilted by close encounters with passing planetesimals

The Moon was nudged into its tilted orbit by the gravitational pull of small planetary bodies left over from the formation of the solar system, according to a new model.  The findings explain a long-standing mystery of why the Moon's orbit around Earth is inclined by five degrees relative to Earth's orbit around the Sun.

Conflicting Dental Evidence On Homo Floresiensis

Ancient tiny people whose remains were discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores evolved from large-bodied Homo erectus individuals from Asia, according to the first ever comprehensive analysis of their teeth. The teeth were certainly not equivalent to those of our species, which negates the theory that hobbits were somehow deformed modern humans and not a new species. The teeth were also not equivalent to those of very early humans like Australopithecus and Homo habilis. The hobbit's teeth and skull were most similar to those of Java Man, according to the researchers.

Dr María Martinón-Torres, a University College London anthropologist, remains perplexed by the ancient humans' teeth. Their canines have an asymmetrical shape when viewed from the outside, while their molars are relatively short and only have four cusps. Those of most primitive humans had five.

Early galaxies were more efficient at making stars

Galaxies were more efficient at making stars when the universe was younger, according to a study based on the largest Hubble Space Telescope survey ever conducted.

Fossil bones from extinct cousin reveal how giraffe got its long neck

Analysis of the neck bones of an extinct member of the giraffe family reveal how today's giraffe got its exceptionally long neck.  In a paper published in Royal Society Open Science, scientists describe the neck of a "transitional" or "intermediate" species that existed about 7 million years ago.  The findings, by researchers at the New York Institute of Technology, are based on analysis of fossil vertebrae of Samotherium major, a giraffid that roamed parts of Eurasia, including Samos of Greece (where it was originally found and named), South Italy, Turkey, Moldavia, Iran, and China.

Humans have been using honeybee products for at least 9,000 years

Humans were making use of honeybee products such as beeswax as early as 7000BC, according to new research released.  Previously the use of bee products was dated to around 2400BC with ancient Egyptian murals and iconography depicting beekeeping.

Possible ice volcanoes discovered on frozen Pluto

The dark distinctive depression on the summit of the icy mountain at the centre of this image of Pluto's surface is believed to be the giant, 56 kilometre-wide caldera of a recently active cryovolcano.

'Protein compass' may explain how pigeons find their way home

A pair of proteins may hold the key as to how animals like pigeons, sharks and bees sense the Earth's magnetic field and use it to navigate.

Mystery of the Moon's missing volatile elements finally solved

A new model that solves the last remaining major questions about the birth of the Moon has been developed by astronomers.