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News |
Who let the wolves in? Genetic record for domestic dogs pushed back by 5,000 years
The oldest dog genomes on record all come from a population that lived alongside Ice Age hunter-gatherers across Europe and the Middle East.
- Ewen Callaway
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Article
| Open Access
Genomic history of early dogs in Europe
Genome-wide analysis shows European dogs existed by 14,200 years ago, were already genetically distinct, received less Neolithic Southwest Asian admixture than humans did and contributed substantially to later European dogs.
- Anders Bergström
- , Anja Furtwängler
- & Pontus Skoglund
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Article
| Open Access
Dogs were widely distributed across western Eurasia during the Palaeolithic
Analysis of nuclear and mitochondrial genomes from archaeological canid remains found across Europe and Anatolia shows that a genetically homogeneous dog population was already widely distributed across the region by 15,000 years ago.
- William A. Marsh
- , Lachie Scarsbrook
- & Laurent A. F. Frantz
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Article |
Oxygen supply through the tracheolar–muscle system does not constrain insect gigantism
New evidence suggests that diffusive oxygen transport through the tracheolar–muscle system is not the limiting factor on insect body size.
- Edward P. Snelling
- , Antonia V. Lensink
- & Roger S. Seymour
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News Feature |
How DNA in dirt is shaking up the study of human origins
Researchers are pulling clues from genetic material in ice age soils and rewriting chapters of human history.
- Dyani Lewis
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News & Views |
Forty-five years of progress after a key paper about the evolution of cooperation
A 1981 publication showed how cooperators can prevail over defectors, laying the foundation for how the evolution of cooperation between unrelated individuals is studied.
- Sarah Mathew
- & Robert Boyd
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Obituary |
Paul R. Ehrlich obituary: pioneering ecologist who caused controversy by predicting a ‘population bomb’
The environmentalist founded the field of co-evolution, and warned that rapid human expansion would cause biodiversity collapse and famine.
- Danny Dorling
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Article |
Local agricultural transition, crisis and migration in the Southern Andes
In the Uspallata Valley, agriculture was adopted by local populations, as evidenced by genetic continuity from earlier hunter-gatherers to farmers; maize-dependent groups from the same regional population later experienced stress and demographic decline and likely used social organization and migration as resilience strategies.
- Ramiro Barberena
- , Pierre Luisi
- & Nicolás Rascovan
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Research Briefing |
Our microbial ancestors were probably oxygen-tolerant
Genomic analysis has unexpectedly revealed that microorganisms called Asgard archaea, the closest relative of our cellular ancestors, can respire using oxygen. This suggests that the common ancestor of these modern archaea and nucleus-containing eukaryotic cells could have been oxygen-tolerant, contrary to previous models of the origins of complex life.
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Article
| Open Access
Adaptive evolution of gene regulatory networks in mammalian neocortex
The excitatory neuron diversity and specialized connectivity of complex, multilayered mammalian neocortex are driven by mammalian-specific cis-regulatory elements bound by ZBTB18, deletion of which disrupts gene expression and results in projection patterns resembling those of non-mammalian brains.
- Zhuo Li
- , Navjot Kaur
- & Nenad Sestan
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News |
No such thing as a shark? Genomes shake up ocean predator’s family tree
Sharks might not be a natural biological group, with most species potentially closer kin to rays than to an oddball group of sharks.
- Ewen Callaway
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Nature Podcast |
This fish shouldn’t exist — the weird genetics of clonal vertebrates
A study reveals how the asexual Amazon molly defies evolutionary expectations — plus, evidence of what might be powering superluminous supernovae.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Shamini Bundell
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News & Views |
How an all-female fish species defies evolutionary expectations
Asexual reproduction should be an evolutionary dead end. A study of asexual fish shows that a genetic ‘copy and paste’ helps to overcome the predicted costs of asexuality.
- Waldir M. Berbel-Filho
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Article |
Gene conversion empowers natural selection in a clonal fish species
Analysis of the asexually reproducing Amazon molly Poecilia formosa and its sexually reproducing progenitors Poecilia mexicana and Poecilia latipinna reveals that it maintains a divergent mutational landscape and has evaded functional mutational decay via gene conversion.
- Edward S. Ricemeyer
- , Nathan K. Schaefer
- & Wesley C. Warren
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Article
| Open Access
Capturing dynamic phage–pathogen coevolution by clinical surveillance
The acquisition of a parasitic anti-phage mobile genetic element, PLE11, showing potent anti-phage activity against cocirculating ICP1, and the subsequent evolution of ICP1 to escape this defense, are captured, revealing the molecular basis of the natural selection of a globally notable pathogen and its virus.
- Yamini Mathur
- , Caroline M. Boyd
- & Kimberley D. Seed
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Article
| Open Access
A sorghum pangenome reference improves global crop trait discovery
A pangenome reference for the phenotypically diverse crop sorghum aims to help accelerate future efforts to breed crops that are better adapted to changing environments.
- Geoffrey P. Morris
- , Avril M. Harder
- & John T. Lovell
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Article |
The oldest articulated bony fish from the early Silurian period
A tiny, articulated, near-complete osteichthyan from the early Silurian Chongqing Lagerstätte, represents the oldest osteichthyan occurrence including microfossils, and the earliest articulated remains of any bony fish in the fossil record.
- You-An Zhu
- , Yang Chen
- & Min Zhu
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Article |
Largest Silurian fish illuminates the origin of osteichthyan characters
New findings from articulated head and trunk material of Megamastax amblyodus yield previously unseen morphological details of a Silurian stem osteichthyan.
- Jing Lu
- , Brian Choo
- & Min Zhu
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News & Views |
How can fast-evolving DNA retain a fundamental function in cell division?
In a dividing cell, chromosome pairs are pulled apart thanks to attachment sites called centromeres. Yeast genomes reveal key steps in how centromeres have evolved.
- Adele L. Marston
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Nature Podcast |
Briefing chat: Pokémon turns 30 — how Pikachu and pals inspired generations of researchers
Nature staff discuss some of the week’s top science news.
- Benjamin Thompson
- , Nick Petrić Howe
- & Miryam Naddaf
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News |
Pokémon turns 30 — how the fictional pocket monsters shaped science
The Japanese media sensation has inspired generations of researchers in fields as diverse as evolution, biodiversity and research integrity.
- Miryam Naddaf
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News & Views |
Flexible paths to multicellularity
Close relatives of animals can become multicellular if distinct individuals join together or if dividing cells remain attached. A species has been found to use both mechanisms.
- Jaruwatana Sodai Lotharukpong
- & Susana M. Coelho
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Article
| Open Access
Clonal-aggregative multicellularity tuned by salinity in a choanoflagellate
The choanoflagellate Choanoeca flexa forms motile and contractile cell monolayers purely clonally, purely aggregatively or through a combination of both processes depending on environmental conditions.
- Núria Ros-Rocher
- , Josean Reyes-Rivera
- & Thibaut Brunet
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Article |
Argentine fossil rewrites evolutionary history of a baffling dinosaur clade
A skeleton of the alvarezsauroid Alnashetri cerropoliciensis—representing a highly complete alvarezsauroid skeleton from South America—provides evidence on the evolution of the peculiar anatomy and miniaturization within this unusual theropod dinosaur clade.
- Peter J. Makovicky
- , Jonathan S. Mitchell
- & Sebastian Apesteguía
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Book Review |
AI tools can design genomes. Will they upend how life evolves?
Breakthroughs in computing are supercharging a field of science dedicated to building synthetic organisms from scratch.
- Kate Adamala
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News |
This giant virus hijacks cells’ protein-making machinery to multiply wildly
A virus that is big enough to be seen under an ordinary light microscope co-opts its host’s systems with the help of potentially purloined genes.
- Edward Chen
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Article
| Open Access
Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres
Evolutionarily related ‘proto-point’ centromeres providing resolution to the evolutionary origins of point centromeres are identified in yeast, and comparison shows they evolved in an ancestor with retrotransposon-rich centromeres and that long-terminal-repeat retrotransposons are the genetic substrate.
- Max A. B. Haase
- , Luciana Lazar-Stefanita
- & Jef D. Boeke
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Article
| Open Access
Reduced cyclin D3 expression in erythroid cells protects against malaria
Population-level analyses and in vitro experiments show that a specific genetic variant of cyclin D3 inhibits the growth of the malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium falciparum in erythrocytes, and suggest that its high frequency in Sardinia was driven by past endemic malaria.
- Maria Giuseppina Marini
- , Maura Mingoia
- & Francesco Cucca
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Article |
Oxygen metabolism in descendants of the archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor
Sequencing of marine sediments finds 136 newly identified Heimdallarchaeia and several novel lineages, and indicates that Heimdallarchaeia evolved distinct metabolic capabilities from other Asgardarchaeota, in conditions that may have given rise to early eukaryotes.
- Kathryn E. Appler
- , James P. Lingford
- & Brett J. Baker
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Article |
Lasting Lower Rhine–Meuse forager ancestry shaped Bell Beaker expansion
A distinctive population with high hunter-gatherer ancestry persisted 3,000 years later than in most European regions, contributing to later Lower Rhine–Meuse Bell Beaker users.
- Iñigo Olalde
- , Eveline Altena
- & David Reich
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News & Views |
Evolutionary insights into a skin fold
The formation of a skin fold named a rete ridge reveals how simple architectural changes reshape tissue mechanics and signalling routes to make a different type of skin structure.
- Cheng Ming Chuong
- & Mingxing Lei
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Article
| Open Access
Rete ridges form via evolutionarily distinct mechanisms in mammalian skin
A spatial and single-cell transcriptomics study across multiple mammalian species identifies epidermal BMP signalling as a functional requirement for rete ridge formation, providing insight into mechanisms underlying hair density loss and wound healing.
- Sean M. Thompson
- , Violet S. Yaple
- & Ryan R. Driskell
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Article |
A Cambrian soft-bodied biota after the first Phanerozoic mass extinction
The Huayuan biota exhibits extraordinary biodiversity, illuminating the impact of the Phanerozoic mass extinction around 513 million years ago and offering critical insights into the transformation of global ecosystems in the early Cambrian.
- Han Zeng
- , Qi Liu
- & Maoyan Zhu
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News & Views |
Spotting viral invaders in koala family trees
Genetic analyses of koala pedigrees help to suss out virus-induced genome changes that affect cancer risk and reproductive success.
- Holly Smith
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News Feature |
What were the first animals? The fierce sponge–jelly battle that just won’t end
For almost two decades, scientists have debated whether sponges or comb jellies are the first animal lineage. Now some are calling for a more harmonious approach.
- Ewen Callaway
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News & Views |
A variety of early hominin species shared the Afar region of Ethiopia
Fossils reveal that at least four types of hominin, including Paranthropus, were present in northern Ethiopia between 3 million and 2.4 million years ago.
- Carol V. Ward
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News & Views |
An eye-popping discovery: early vertebrates had four eyes rather than two
Eyes on a face’s front or side enable a brain to perceive images. Fossil evidence suggests that two light-sensitive organs on top of ancient vertebrate heads generated images, too.
- Michael S. Levine
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News & Views |
Illuminating how the bird inner retina works without oxygen solves a 350-year-old structural mystery
Neurons in the bird eye’s inner retina lack a blood supply. Finding how these neurons function without oxygen reveals a role for an enigmatic eye structure.
- Michael Berenbrink
- & Jenni M. Prokkola
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Article |
Afar fossil shows broad distribution and versatility of Paranthropus
With its attribution to Paranthropus, a 2.6-million-year-old partial mandible expands the range of the genus into the Afar region of Ethiopia and adds to our understanding of hominin evolution in eastern Africa.
- Zeresenay Alemseged
- , Fred Spoor
- & Jonathan G. Wynn
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Article
| Open Access
Rock art from at least 67,800 years ago in Sulawesi
A hand stencil painted on a cave wall on a small island off the coast of Sulawesi more than 67,800 years ago suggests a very early occupation of Wallacea.
- Adhi Agus Oktaviana
- , Renaud Joannes-Boyau
- & Maxime Aubert
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Article |
Four camera-type eyes in the earliest vertebrates from the Cambrian Period
Early vertebrates, particularly myllokunmingids, possessed four camera-type eyes (a pair of lateral eyes and pineal and parapineal organs), which indicates that these structures functioned in image formation, in support of the hypothesis that the four camera-type eyes represent an ancestral vertebrate trait.
- Xiangtong Lei
- , Sihang Zhang
- & Xing Xu
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Article
| Open Access
Predatory aggression evolved through adaptations to noradrenergic circuits
Noradrenergic circuits support and balance aggressive behavioural states in predatory nematodes, distinguish predatory from non-predatory nematode species and are associated with the evolution of complex behavioural traits.
- Güniz Göze Eren
- , Leonard Böger
- & James W. Lightfoot
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Article
| Open Access
Convergent evolution of scavenger cell development at brain borders
Transcription factor osr2 is identified as a specific marker and regulator of mural lymphatic endothelial cell (muLEC) differentiation and maintenance, and muLECs and border-associated macrophages share functional analogies but are not homologous, providing an example of convergent evolution.
- Andrea U. Gaudi
- , Michelle Meier
- & Benjamin M. Hogan
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News & Views |
Mistaken identity and the psychology of human recognition
The accuracy of eyewitness evidence is questioned, and a fossil collection examined when a geological society moves its London home in this week’s pick from the Nature archive.
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News & Views |
Genomic clues to the origin of eukaryotic cells
How did eukaryotic cells with complex architecture evolve from simpler prokaryotic cells? DNA analyses offer possible answers.
- John M. Archibald
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News |
Ice age wolf pup’s stomach yields rare DNA from woolly rhino
A rare sample from a woolly rhinoceros reveals how the population changed in the lead-up to the species’ extinction.
- Rachel Fieldhouse
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Article
| Open Access
Dominant contribution of Asgard archaea to eukaryogenesis
A survey of the reconstructed gene set of the last eukaryotic common ancestor shows a consistent link between Asgard archaea and the origin of numerous, functionally diverse eukaryotic genes, demonstrating the dominant Asgard contribution to eukaryogenesis.
- Victor Tobiasson
- , Jacob Luo
- & Eugene V. Koonin
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News Feature |
How did birds evolve? The answer is wilder than anyone thought
Discoveries in Jurassic rocks reveal that birds were adept fliers earlier than scientists realized.
- Michael Marshall
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News |
Will mpox go global again? Research shows it’s evolving in curious ways
Analyses of monkeypox virus clades currently in circulation provide clues to how the virus managed to spread worldwide in 2022 — and how it might go global again.
- Max Kozlov
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