before Neanderthals and Denisovans

I have written quite a few pieces about Neanderthals and Denisovans in recent years, but not all that much about the earlier stages of human evolution. This was mainly because I usually covered molecular / genetic studies into prehistoric populations, beginning with the first attempts at the Neanderthal genome and leading up to today's remarkably rich, genetically based accounts of our prehistory.

The limited shelf life of DNA means that we aren't likely to see any comparable details regarding the populations and species that came before Neanderthals and Denisovans, the likes of Homo erectus and Australopithecus afarensis. However, researchers have now succeeded in getting protein sequences from teeth of human relatives up to 800,000 years old, which drives the molecular investigation of human evolution much deeper into the past than has been possible before. Which was a good excuse to expand the range of my coverage as well and look into the deeper layers of our evolution in my feature which is out now:

Digging deeper into human evolution

Current Biology Volume 30, Issue 9, 04 May 2020, Pages R371-R374

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Homo erectus remains have been found in Africa, Europe and Asia. This skull is from the Dmanisi cave in Georgia, where samples for successful proteomic analyses were also obtained. (Photo: Rama/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0 FR).)

mind Africa's genomes

Africa has been left behind by much of modern biomedical science and biotechnology, so it is always good to see when new initiatives aim to spread the benefits to this continent, as the newly launched NeuroGAP and NeuroDEV programmes for psychiatric genetics do. However, one also has to watch out very carefully, not to create the impression that Western scientists extract samples and scientific insights from the continent in a one-way system. Empowering local scientists and building capacity in situ have to be important parts of any such projects.

I've tried to gain a balanced perspective of all this in my latest feature, which is out now:

Mind the genome diversity gap

Current Biology Volume 28, Issue 7, 2 April 2018, Pages R293–R295

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Sites in South Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda are involved in the projects.
Credit : Susanna M. Hamilton, Broad Communications

passport pics for penguins

The cover of this week's Nature highlights the danger of banding penguins for identification:




However, alternative recognition methods have been available for years now and have been applied in the field to various animal species including penguins. Years ago, I did a feature on the pattern recognition on whale sharks using a program borrowed from astronomy (included in my platypus book).

Regarding the penguins, Earthwatch say that they are already road-testing a non-invasive identification method in their penguin project on Robben Island (South Africa). Scientists are using an automatic recognition system which records patterns of spots on the chests of adult birds through digital photography. The technique is still being tested and refined, but eventually it may be possible to monitor remotely more than 90 per cent of the African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) on the island. This automated system will help to eliminate the need to band penguins, except for specific purposes such as measuring chick survival rates, when flipper bands still need to be used.

Referring to the Nature report concluding that king penguins had 40 per cent fewer chicks if they were banded, and lived shorter lives, Earthwatch team leader Peter Barham said: "There have been several studies on the effect of banding on African penguins and Magellanics penguins which have been unable to find any significant differences between banded and unbanded penguins when it comes to breeding success. There are, however, other impacts of banding which is one reason why we want to introduce the recognition system to replace banding where possible. From time to time, for example, we find African penguins trapped by their bands."

More info about the penguin project and how to join