Here we present Robert R. Sokal’s review of the paper “DNA and the Population Prehistory of Europe“, edited by Colin Renfrew and Katie Boyle, Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, 2000. Continue reading “Archaeogenetics: DNA and the Population Prehistory of Europe”
Genetic origins of the Minoans and Mycenaeans
Here we present the ‘Abstract‘ of the corresponding paper by Iosif Lazaridis, Alissa Mittnik, Nick Patterson, Swapan Mallick, Nadin Rohland, Saskia Pfrengle, Anja Furtwängler, Alexander Peltzer, Cosimo Posth, Andonis Vasilakis, P. J. P. McGeorge, Eleni Konsolaki-Yannopoulou, George Korres, Holley Martlew, Manolis Michalodimitrakis, Mehmet Özsait, Nesrin Özsait, Anastasia Papathanasiou, Michael Richards, Songül Alpaslan Roodenberg, Yannis Tzedakis, Robert Arnott, Daniel M. Fernandes, Jeffery R. Hughey, Dimitra M. Lotakis, Patrick A. Navas, Yannis Maniatis, John A. Stamatoyannopoulos, Kristin Stewardson, Philipp Stockhammer, Ron Pinhasi, David Reich, Johannes Krause & George Stamatoyannopoulos. Continue reading “Genetic origins of the Minoans and Mycenaeans”
Major Revisions in the Pleistocene Age Assignments for North American Human Skeletons by C-14 Accelerator Mass Spectrometry: None Older Than 11,000 C-14 Years B.P.
Here we present the ‘Abstract‘ of the corresponding paper by R. E. Taylor, L. A. Payen, C. A. Prior, P. J. Slota. Continue reading “Major Revisions in the Pleistocene Age Assignments for North American Human Skeletons by C-14 Accelerator Mass Spectrometry: None Older Than 11,000 C-14 Years B.P.”
Evolution purged many Neanderthal genes from human genome
Neanderthal genetic material is found in only small amounts in the genomes of modern humans because, after interbreeding, natural selection removed large numbers of weakly deleterious Neanderthal gene variants, according to a study by Ivan Juric and colleagues at the University of California, Davis, published November 8th, 2016 in PLOS Genetics. Continue reading “Evolution purged many Neanderthal genes from human genome”
Human dispersion through southern Europe in Early Pleistocene
Geochronologists from the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) have led a study published in the journal Quaternary Geochronology about the chronology of the archaeological site of Gran Dolina, situated in the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos), whose results confirm a pulse of human dispersion in southern Europe around one million years ago. Continue reading “Human dispersion through southern Europe in Early Pleistocene”
Prenatal stress changes brain connectivity in-utero
The time babies spend in the womb is far from idle. The brain is changing more rapidly during this time than at any other time in development. It is an active time for the fetus to grow and explore, and of course connect to its mother. And new evidence from in-utero fetal brain scans shows, for the first time, that this connection directly affects brain development: A mother’s stress during pregnancy changes neural connectivity in the brain of her unborn child. Continue reading “Prenatal stress changes brain connectivity in-utero”