Dugger, Celia W. and John Noble Wilford. " New Hominid Species Discovered in South Africa." The New York Times April 8 2010
Celia W. Dugger and John Nobel Wilford describe a nine-year-old boy named Matthew Berger in Johannesburg, South Africa, who "tripped over a log" after chasing his dog on August 15, 2008 and found the bones of "a new hominid species that lived almost two million years ago during the fateful, still mysterious period spanning the emergence of the human family." It was lucky for this boy to find these, since his dad is Paleoanthropologist Lee R. Berger. Lee R. Berger had been searching the same area for the past twenty years, finding very little, so Matthew must have known this was exactly what his dad wanted to find. Sometimes it takes an accident or not looking to discover great things.
The hominid Matthew discovered was a "4-foot-2 boy who had been just a few years older than Matthew himself," buried along with three other individuals and several animals close by. This new hominid species has been named "Australopithecus sediba. " Dugger and Wilford say, "Geologists estimated that the individuals lived 1.78 million to 1.95 million years ago," descending from "Australopithecus africanus," and they believe they are a possible "immediate" ancestor to Homo erectus.
In class we learned about several species and how they are connected to the modern humans. I bet it is very exciting to discover new clues on how we are connected to other species, as scientists who spend their entire lives trying to create a timeline and family trees. I figure finding a new species is like finding piece to a puzzle you're trying to complete, but sometimes discoveries leads to even more questions instead of answers. Hopefully one day, we will be able to put the entire puzzle together.
Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Borna Virus
Zimmer, Carl. "Hunting Fossil Viruses in Human DNA". The New York Times January 11 2010.
In this article, Carl Zimmer talks about a disease called the Borna Virus, which scientists are trying to discover what genes belonging "to a kind of virus that has never been found in the human genome before," that causes it to show up in most animal species such as horses and humans. Zimmer describes the Borna Virus as "obscure and grotesque," and can "alter human behavior, playing a role in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder."
He argues, "The virus infected our monkey-like ancestors 40 million years ago, and its genes have been passed down ever since," and scientists are studying fossils to see if there are traces of the virus in the bones of our ancestors. I wouldn't guess that the virus would live on, thinking it would die once the fossil reached the air. I didn't factor in the DNA residue. Scientists in this study, first study human genome and moved on to other fossils to study the mammal genome to see how big the virus has spread, which makes sense because we would want to figure out what species it originated in. He also tells us, "Scientists have found about 100,000 elements of human DNA that probably came from viruses."
Zimmer talks about how retroviruses pass and "mutate" through our DNA, which we learned about in class. I thought it was interesting that he talks about H.I.V. being passed down from Chimpanzees to humans. He says, "H.I.V. evolved about a century ago from a chimpanzee virus known as simian immunodeficiency virus, or S.I.V." I've never heard of S.I.V., but it doesn't surprise me that Chimpanzees would have a similar disease, since we are so close to them with our DNA.
In this article, Carl Zimmer talks about a disease called the Borna Virus, which scientists are trying to discover what genes belonging "to a kind of virus that has never been found in the human genome before," that causes it to show up in most animal species such as horses and humans. Zimmer describes the Borna Virus as "obscure and grotesque," and can "alter human behavior, playing a role in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder."
He argues, "The virus infected our monkey-like ancestors 40 million years ago, and its genes have been passed down ever since," and scientists are studying fossils to see if there are traces of the virus in the bones of our ancestors. I wouldn't guess that the virus would live on, thinking it would die once the fossil reached the air. I didn't factor in the DNA residue. Scientists in this study, first study human genome and moved on to other fossils to study the mammal genome to see how big the virus has spread, which makes sense because we would want to figure out what species it originated in. He also tells us, "Scientists have found about 100,000 elements of human DNA that probably came from viruses."
Zimmer talks about how retroviruses pass and "mutate" through our DNA, which we learned about in class. I thought it was interesting that he talks about H.I.V. being passed down from Chimpanzees to humans. He says, "H.I.V. evolved about a century ago from a chimpanzee virus known as simian immunodeficiency virus, or S.I.V." I've never heard of S.I.V., but it doesn't surprise me that Chimpanzees would have a similar disease, since we are so close to them with our DNA.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Camouflaged Animals
Carroll, Sean B. "Imitators That Hide in Plain Sight, and Stay Alive ". The New York Times February 15 2010
In this article, Sean B. Carroll describes the theories of Henry Walter Bates based on the 14,000 species he study in the Amazon jungle. Bates traveled to South America with Alfred Russell Wallace, but the two didn't see eye to eye, so he ventured off on his own. Practically giving up on his research because of money issues, Bates got yellow fever the week he was supposed to leave Brazil, received a new grant, and spent another eight years there. His research studied "the close resemblance of some animals to living or inanimate objects" and concluded that "defenseless mimics gained an advantage by resembling well-defended species." He tried to find out if it was through evolution that this occurred. Charles Darwin was "excited" that Bates' findings supported his own theories of artificial and natural selection.
It is incredible to see how scientists like Bates, Darwin, and Wallace researched and how similar their work is, supporting the evolution theories of the other scientists within years of each other. Which is interesting that Bates worked with Wallace and Darwin, because Wallace and Darwin both came out with papers at the same time. I think the combination of working with both of them gave him more ideas of how to research and do experiments. If Bates hadn't gotten yellow fever, would he have discovered what he did or would someone else discover it later? I think his theory about the animals makes a lot of sense, because we as animals have to adapt to our surroundings if we want to survive. Even humans use camouflage when they are hunting and trying not to be seen by their prey, so it would make sense for animals to try and hid from their attackers.
In this article, Sean B. Carroll describes the theories of Henry Walter Bates based on the 14,000 species he study in the Amazon jungle. Bates traveled to South America with Alfred Russell Wallace, but the two didn't see eye to eye, so he ventured off on his own. Practically giving up on his research because of money issues, Bates got yellow fever the week he was supposed to leave Brazil, received a new grant, and spent another eight years there. His research studied "the close resemblance of some animals to living or inanimate objects" and concluded that "defenseless mimics gained an advantage by resembling well-defended species." He tried to find out if it was through evolution that this occurred. Charles Darwin was "excited" that Bates' findings supported his own theories of artificial and natural selection.
It is incredible to see how scientists like Bates, Darwin, and Wallace researched and how similar their work is, supporting the evolution theories of the other scientists within years of each other. Which is interesting that Bates worked with Wallace and Darwin, because Wallace and Darwin both came out with papers at the same time. I think the combination of working with both of them gave him more ideas of how to research and do experiments. If Bates hadn't gotten yellow fever, would he have discovered what he did or would someone else discover it later? I think his theory about the animals makes a lot of sense, because we as animals have to adapt to our surroundings if we want to survive. Even humans use camouflage when they are hunting and trying not to be seen by their prey, so it would make sense for animals to try and hid from their attackers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)