“[T]he ancient wolf genomes clustered together in time. That is, a given wolf
was most likely to be closely related to other wolves alive at around the same
time, no matter where those wolves lived on the planet.”
posted 10/2/2022 8:00pm ∞
“[T]he pfhrp2 deletions had arisen recently and hadn’t had time for mutation and
recombination to scramble the DNA sequences nearby. So,
all the [malaria] parasites that carry the pfhrp2 deletion seemed to have
inherited it from the same ancestor, that ancestor was very recent, and there
was a selective pressure that was driving the expansion of parasites that
inherited the deletion.”
posted 8/12/2022 8:00pm ∞
“Settlements typically include a small group — usually a few dozen people —
branching off from a larger population on the island of origin. By chance, a
few of the genetic variants that are rare in the large population would be
common in the settlers.”
“[P]eople who were homozygous (had two copies) of this protective gene variant
involved in antigen presentation were 40 percent more likely to survive the
plague than those with two copies of a deleterious variant, which encodes a
broken protein.”
posted 11/3/2022 8:00pm ∞
“This single discarded piece of ancient chewing gum tells us that the ancient
woman … was probably lactose intolerant, ate duck and hazelnuts, and may
recently have had pneumonia. She also had blue eyes, dark brown hair, and dark
skin.”
posted 3/7/2020 10:34pm ∞