From a Few Wild Ancestors, a Citrus Cornucopia
For most of us, the word “citrus?conjures up images of oranges, grapefruits, lemons, limes -- and possibly citrons or blood oranges, if you’re a true connoisseur of fruit. But for ARS horticulturalist Robert R. Krueger, the genus Citrus includes at least 16 species, with hundreds of distant relatives, including lesser-known, peelable oddities like pummelos, trifoliate oranges, and kumquat...New technology shows our ancestors ate…everything!
Using a powerful microscope and computer software, a team of scientists from Johns Hopkins, the University of Arkansas, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and elsewhere has developed a faster and more objective way to examine the surfaces of fossilized teeth, a practice used to figure out the diets of our early ancestors. By comparing teeth from two species of early humans, Australopithecus a...Why we give: New study finds evidence of generosity among our early human ancestors
A groundbreaking new study examines the origins of holiday giving and finds that our early human ancestors were frequently altruistic. "Reciprocity is arguably the foundational basis of cooperation in humans," writes Michael Gurven (University of California ?Santa Barbara). "A core feature of reciprocity is the contingent relationship between acts of giving and receiving among social part...Protowings may have helped bird ancestors cover rough terrain
Biologists have long argued about how birds evolved the ability to fly, because it is not immediately evident what improvement in fitness would result from ancestral, partly evolved wings. Two theories have recently dominated the debate: one postulates that flight evolved in tree-dwelling ancestors that used their forelimbs to help them glide, while the other considers ancestral birds to be terre...Scientists Develop New Technology To Find About Human Ancestors’ Teet
Researchers from Johns Hopkins, the University of Arkansas, Worcester Polytechnic Institute //and other institutes have come together to develop a new way to examine the fossils of our ancestors’ teeth to predict how our diets have evolved through the ages and why. By comparing teeth from two species of early humans, Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus, the researchers...Holiday giving linked to altruistic nature of our ancestors
Researchers found that altruistic nature where high in our ancestors, they gave more gifts to the families who had less food and also had the habit of exchanging gifts and foods between// them which were the basis for origin of holiday giving. Michael Gurven, University of California said, "Reciprocity is arguably the foundational basis of cooperation in humans and a core feature of recip...Obesity Passed Onto Children By Ancestors' Smoking And Chewing Betel Nuts
A new study appearing in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition says that the poor health and lifestyle of our ancestors is responsible for the overweight/obesity epidemic that has the society in its grip //. In a study of men who chewed betel nut, it was found that they passed the habit to their sons and grandsons. Barbara Boucher, of the University of London, and colleagues in T...Strong Evidence Suggests Incidence Of Mating Of Ancestors With Neanderthals
A recent scientific study conducted at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of Chicago led by Bruce T. //Lahn suggests that human evolution may not be all about unprompted mutations that occurred on the spur of a moment but because of interbreeding with related species on the verge of extinction that resulted in the introduction of variant genes called alleles which has...Our Medieval Ancestors Were More or Less Similar to Us Than Previously Thought
Englishmen during the time of Chaucer were not dwarfs but only short by two inches compared to todays average height, and same was the case with women more or less, a new study by researchers from the Bristol Royal Infirmary has revealed. As part of their study, scientists researched 3000 skeletons from the medieval St. Peters Church in Barton upon Humber, North East Lincolnshire,...