PNAS will soon publish a paper from Mike Bruford and colleagues who isolated DNA from gorilla hair and feces and ultimately came up with a conclusion that the modern genetic composition of gorilla populations varies across different parts of their current geographic range and that this variation may be tied to Ice Age climate change [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘Genetics’
November 21, 2007
Bonobo Genome & Bonobo Conservation Efforts
It seems like the news hasn’t gobbled up this news as adamantly as it did the news of the bonobo reserve in the Congo, but it is nonetheless newsworthy and crucial to the study of bonobos. The Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at the Max Planck Institute put out a press release that they just acquired [...]
November 14, 2007
Alternative Splicing in Humans & Chimps
I could swear that in the past I had covered news that the minute genetic and massive phenotypic differences between humans and chimpanzees are due to the alternative splicing. But I can’t seem to find the post at all… there maybe a slight chance I didn’t post about it but I’m pretty sure I did [...]
October 4, 2007
Add DNApes to your bookmarks or RSS Feed
I just stumbled upon a new-to-me primatology blog that I wanted to share with you. The blog, DNApes, comes from Mimi Arandjelovic, a graduate student at the Max Planck power house of anthropology and is chock full of good posts.
Mimi studies variation in male-transmitted Y-chromosome of gorillas, which is extremely important given that gorillas are [...]
May 21, 2007
Brainstorming the Future of Primate Brain Evolution Research
The following post is a departure from my usual reporting on an interesting primate related tidbit of research. I’ll be posting about how I have thought about how to study primate brain evolution research. These are just ideas I have brainstormed. It is very probable that people are doing this out in their respective labs [...]
May 9, 2007
A SNP Resource for Rhesus Macaque (Macaca mulatta) Genomics
I’m posting this as I run out the door, so forgive me if it is a bit brief and incomplete in explanation… but I have to share this resource/paper with you because less than 1 month ago the Macaque genome draft was released, and this publication is the first application, I know, of the draft [...]
May 8, 2007
The Human Mutation - a mutation in neuropsin is found only in humans
So if you have been in the dark about what’s been making a lot of buzz around the internet today, have no worries. I’m more than happy to explain it to you, because this new research will really help us understand what it means to be human and non-human.
How, you ask?
Well, it identifies a unique [...]
April 25, 2007
The Mountain Gorilla comeback
The Mountain Gorilla, Gorilla beringei beringei, is the primate comeback kid.
I previously shared news with you that their population has been making a rebound. Since then, The Times has published a news article on this topic. (Thanks, Paulin!) Before we get into it, I wanted to say that I haven’t noticed any US news sources [...]
April 20, 2007
Keeping track of Primate Conservation
A new public database has been released that overviews the status of endangered and almost extinct animals. I feel like it is a critical and timely resource, especially in regards to primate conservation efforts.
The project is called EDGE, and currently lemurs are at the top of the most critically endangered primates on that list, and [...]
April 16, 2007
How did Mark Henderson, of The Times, interpret that chimps are more evolved?
…Or rather why did Mark interpret this information that way? I know, I know, rhetorical question, to some extent. I don’t think that we are yet at a stage of comparing genetic sequences to say one organism is more evolved than the other. But Mark Henderson, ‘Science Editor’ of the newspaper The Times, seems to [...]
