Search results for "Human Evolution"
showing 10 items of 52 documents
Large carnivore attacks on hominins during the Pleistocene: a forensic approach with a Neanderthal example
2015
DOI: 10.1007/s12520-015-0248-1 URL: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12520-015-0248-1 Filiació URV: SI Interaction between hominins and carnivores has been common and constant through human evolution and generated mutual pressures similar to those present in worldwide modern human-carnivore conflicts. This current interaction is sometimes violent and can be reflected in permanent skeletal pathologies and other bone modifications. In the present paper, we carry out a survey of 124 forensic cases of dangerous human-carnivore encounters. The objective is to infer direct hominin-carnivore confrontation during the Pleistocene, which is important to understand behavioral changes during…
A Network Model for the Correlation between Epistasis and Genomic Complexity
2008
The study of genetic interactions (epistasis) is central to the understanding of genome organization and evolution. A general correlation between epistasis and genomic complexity has been recently shown, such that in simpler genomes epistasis is antagonistic on average (mutational effects tend to cancel each other out), whereas a transition towards synergistic epistasis occurs in more complex genomes (mutational effects strengthen each other). Here, we use a simple network model to identify basic features explaining this correlation. We show that, in small networks with multifunctional nodes, lack of redundancy, and absence of alternative pathways, epistasis is antagonistic on average. In c…
New insight into the colonization processes of common voles: inferences from molecular and fossil evidence.
2008
Biologie et Gestion des Populations, Campus International de Baillarguet, Montferrier/Lez, FranceElucidating the colonization processes associated with Quaternary climatic cycles is important in order to understand the distribution of biodiversity and the evolutionary potential of temperate plant and animal species. In Europe, general evolutionary scenarios have been defined from genetic evidence. Recently, these scenarios have been challenged with genetic as well as fossil data. The origins of the modern distributions of most temperate plant and animal species could predate the Last Glacial Maximum. The glacial survival of such populations may have occurred in either southern (Mediterranea…
History and reality of the genus 'Homo' : what is it and why do we think so?
2017
Paleoanthropologists who worry about how nature is organized into species, and about what we should call them, are very often accused by their peers of «just arguing about names». This implies that basic taxonomy is a boring clerical operation that should be dispensed with as quickly as possible or even ignored, so that we can get to the really interesting questions about human evolution. Yet the reality is that we shall never understand the events of the intricate human evolutionary play if we cannot accurately identify the actors who participated in that drama. This article looks briefly at how our current supremely woolly concept of the genus Homo has come about, as background for urging…
Water: The First Archaic Mutagen of Evolution, the Adoptive Mother of Currently Nucleic Acids
2016
It would be intuitive to think that for the evolutionary onset of nucleic acids, and even before of their monomeric constituents, the water was crucial. Within the series of evolutions which start from the origin of the universe and still cannot, by definition, be considered concluded, certainly among the geothermal evolution end and the beginning of the chemical one, on Earth, the moment was favorable for the arrival of the first proto-nucleotides: from underground deposits of methanehydrate [1] and phosphate, with the support of all known pre-biotic physical-chemical conditions, were made the monomeric components of nucleic acids. The cradle of nucleic acids does not seem to have been so …
The cross-sectional area of the gluteus maximus muscle varies according to habitual exercise loading: Implications for activity-related and evolution…
2015
Greater size of the gluteus maximus muscle in humans compared to non-human primates has been considered an indication of its function in bipedal posture and gait, especially running capabilities. Our aim was to find out how the size of the gluteus maximus muscle varies according to sports while controlling for variation in muscle strength and body weight. Data on gluteus maximus muscle cross-sectional area (MCA) were acquired from magnetic resonance images of the hip region of female athletes (N=91), and physically active controls (N=20). Dynamic muscle force was measured as counter movement jump and isometric knee extension force as leg press. Five exercise loading groups were created: hig…
Evidences for the reconstruction of Chromosome HSA7 evolutionary dynamics
2011
Anthropology and Genetics of Coeliac Disease.
2008
Reconstructing the Phylogeny of the Human Chromosome 4 Synteny using Comparative Karyology and Genomic Data Analysis
2010
Abstract This work focuses on the evolution of the architecture of human chromosome 4 (HSA4) through the analysis of chromosomal regions that have been conserved over time, and the comparison of regions that have been involved in different rearrangements in placental lineages. As with most elements of the human genome, HSA4 is considered to be evolutionarily stable. A more detailed analysis indicates that the syntenic association has been reshuffled by a series of rearrangements, yielding different chromosomes in various taxa. In its ancestral eutherian state, HSA4 has a syntenic association with HSA8p. We investigated the complex origin of this human chromosome using three different approa…
Affinities of European Upper Palaeolithic Homo sapiens and later human evolution
1992
Abstract We investigate the evolutionary affinities of European Upper Palaeolithic populations, using cranial measurements and multivariate techniques. Results indicate that cranial morphology of these populations accords with long-term phyletic trends within Pleistocene hominids. The data indicate an interpretation of differential velocities of change, and results do not support the view that Neanderthals contributed to recent populations.