ten important discoveries from last decade 1 by upasana gupta

Ten Ten importantimportant

discoveriesdiscoveries

from from last decadelast decade

11http://pariworld.in By Upasana Guptahttp://pariworld.in By Upasana Gupta

Butterfly Supergens

2http://pariworld.in By Upasana Gupta

• The butterfly species Heliconius numata has long proved a mystery. Its population carried seven different discrete wing-patterns.

• A team of British and French biologists discovered in 2011 the presence of what they called a supergene, a cluster of eighteen genes passed down in a single unit.

Discovery: Butterfly supergenes demonstrate

unknown method of inheritance


Humanzees


• It’s well known that chimpanzees are humankind’s closest surviving relative.

• There are some that believe a human-chimp hybrid named Oliver survived until last year, though DNA testing has proven he was just a normal chimp that displayed human-like traits.

• David Reich explained, “That such evolutionary events have not been seen more often in animal species may simply be due to the fact that we have not been looking for them.”

Discovery: Human and chimp interbreeding


Old Bat


• Bats are the second largest order of mammals, accounting for a fifth of all mammalian species.

• A pair of fossils discovered in Wyoming in 2003, part of a new species dubbed Onychonycteris finneyi, has many odd features.

• Joining the dozens and dozens of other transitional fossils completely invisible to creationists, the fifty-two million year old specimen ends decades of speculation amongst scientists.

Discovery: Decades-old bat mystery finally solved by

intriguing fossil


Tiktaalik8http://pariworld.in By Upasana Gupta

• One of the most profound transitions in the history of life was the move from water to land. Tetrapod is the name given to the first creatures to leave the water and the name means four limbs .

• The first tetrapods are the ancestors to all living reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals. Scientists have long understood that tetrapods evolved from lobe-finned fish, themost famous example of which is probably coelacanth

• Tikaalik was the first fossil that is still a fish but displayed the beginnings of digits, wrists, elbows and shoulders.

Discovery: Tiktaalik provides missing link between fish and land animals


Lice10http://pariworld.in By Upasana Gupta

• Lice, which have been irritating human scalps for tens of thousands of years, offer a unique method to exploit this. Lice are specialists with claws adapted to their host, so when their particular meal of choice evolves into a new species, the lice follow suit.

• DNA testing of lice was done by a (probably really itchy) team of researchers at London’s Natural History Museum, offering implications for our knowledge of the evolution of birds and mammals

Discovery: Lice offer a new window into the history of

mammals


Giant Amoeba


• One of the earliest fundamental traits to evolve in the animal kingdom is that of bilateralism.

• If you divide a human in two from top to bottom through the middle you will have, for the most part, the same things on both sides.

• The creation of these particular tracks by creatures moving in a straight line was thought only possible by creatures with two halves.

Discovery: Giant amoeba casts doubt on when

symmetrical life originated


Neanderthal Genome Project14http://pariworld.in By Upasana Gupta

• Neanderthals are the species that was almost us.

• In 2010 a team from Germany’s Max Planck institute published a draft sequence of the Neanderthal genome less then a decade after the mapping of the human genome was completed.

Discovery: The Neanderthal genome project suggests we’re

related


Lucy’s Baby16http://pariworld.in By Upasana Gupta

• The most famous early human ancestor is probably Lucy, the 3.2 million year old skeleton found in 1974.

• Lucy became synonymous with the birth of humanity.

• Being a child skeleton makes it extremely rare. It is also more complete than Lucy.

• The child, who was still at nursing age, will add greatly to our knowledge of human ancestry but it’s hard not to be touched by the descriptions of tiny fingers and a knee cap no bigger than a dried pea.

Discovery: Lucy’s Baby steals Lucy’s thunder


Oldest Ancestor18http://pariworld.in By Upasana Gupta

• The fossil that stole Lucy’s crown as the oldest known probably human ancestor in 2009. Ardi was a 110 lb (50 kg) small-brained female and she predates Lucy by more than a million years.

• Ardi was actually found in 1994 but it wasn’t until 2009, after a decade and a half of painstaking analysis, that the implications became known.

• Ardi casts a definitive blow to the old idea. She shows an unexpected mix of traits both advanced and primitive, unlike chimps or gorillas.

Discovery: Ardi is oldest human ancestor ever found


Junk DNA


• When the human genome project’s first draft was presented in 2000, ninety-seven percent of the 3.2 billion bases in the sequence were without apparent function.

• The primary function of DNA is to provide the designs for proteins, information which is stored in genes, but these constitute just three percent of a DNA strand.

• scientists have identified a portion of noncoding DNA that is fundamental to the development of heart cells, whilst other scientists have found mutations in noncoding DNA that appear to be a key cause of skin cancer.

Discovery: Junk DNA isn’t junk after all


ten important discoveries from last decade 1 by upasana gupta

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