Phenotype and animal domestication : A study of dental variation between domestic, wild, captive, hybrid and insular Sus scrofa

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. Acknowledgements We thank the institutions and individuals that provided access to collections, especially the curators of the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin; Zoologische Staatssammlung, München; Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris; Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, Genève; National Museum of Natural History, Washington; The Field Museum, Chicago and The American Museum of Natural History, New-York. We also thank Jean-Denis Vigne, Nelly Gidaszewski, Vincent Debat and Mathieu Joron for fruitful discussions. This work was supported by a research grant from the Natural Environment Research Council, UK (grant number NE/F003382/1).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Using traditional biometrical data to distinguish West Palearctic wild boar and domestic pigs in the archaeological record : new methods and standards

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Reconstructing Migration Trajectories using ancient DNA

Revealing the temporal and geographic pattern of human and animal dispersal and migration has been a major goal within anthropology, archaeology, and palaeontology. Here, I focus on the use of ancient DNA to delve beneath the migration palimpsests. More specifically, I firstly describe the use of ancient DNA derived from archaeological pig remains as a proxy to understand the initial dispersal of farmers into Europe, the back migration into Anatolia, and the spread of people into the Pacific. I then show how ancient DNA from foxes in the northern and southern hemisphere has been used to understand their dispersal onto islands in the absence of landbridges. These case studies highlight the value of DNA derived from long-dead organisms to detail the pattern and process of ancient dispersals

Efektivitas Pembelajaran dengan Memanfaatkan Video yang Dikemas dalam Bentuk Cd Interaktif pada Mata Kuliah Inovasi Pembelajaran Matematika

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pembelajaran matematika dengan memanfaatkan video yang dikemas dalam bentuk CD Interaktif pada mata kuliah inovasi pembelajaran matematika pada mahasiswa dapat mencapai tuntas dan untuk mengetahui pengaruh pembelajaran matematika dengan memanfaatkan video yang dikemas dalam bentuk CD Interaktif pada mata kuliah inovasi pembelajaran matematika terhadap hasil belajar mahasiswa. Jenis penelitian yang digunakan adalah penelitian Quasy Experimental. Populasi dalam penelitian ini adalah mahasiswa semester III jurusan pendidikan matematika IKIP PGRI Semarang yang terdiri dari sembilan kelas. Dengan teknik purposive sampling dipilih dua kelas, kelas 3D sebagai kelas eksperimen dan kelas 3C sebagai kelas kontrol. Variabel penelitian dalam penelitian ini yaitu kreativitas mahasiswa (X) sebagai variabel bebas dan hasil belajar (Y) sebagai variabel terikat. Cara pengambilan data dengan observasi dan tes hasil belajar. Olah data dengan uji banding dan uji pengaruh. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa uji ketuntasan dengan rata-rata 73,25 artinya telah mencapai ketuntasan dan terjadi perbedaan prestasi antara kelas eksperimen dan kelas kontrol yang ditunjukkan dengan rata-rata 73,25 pada kelas eksperimen dan 68,30 pada kelas kontrol serta diperoleh variabel kreativitas mahasiswa berpengaruh positif terhadap prestasi belajar dengan persamaan regresi ?é?ádan pengaruhnya sebesar 12 %. Hal tersebut menunjukkan pembelajaran kelas eksperimen mencapai efektif. ?é?

Genetic swamping of the critically endangered Scottish wildcat was recent and accelerated by disease

The European wildcat population in Scotland is considered critically endangered as a result of hybridization with introduced domestic cats,1,2 though the time frame over which this gene flow has taken place is unknown. Here, using genome data from modern, museum, and ancient samples, we reconstructed the trajectory and dated the decline of the local wildcat population from viable to severely hybridized. We demonstrate that although domestic cats have been present in Britain for over 2,000 years,3 the onset of hybridization was only within the last 70 years. Our analyses reveal that the domestic ancestry present in modern wildcats is markedly over-represented in many parts of the genome, including the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). We hypothesize that introgression provides wildcats with protection against diseases harbored and introduced by domestic cats, and that this selection contributes to maladaptive genetic swamping through linkage drag. Using the case of the Scottish wildcat, we demonstrate the importance of local ancestry estimates to both understand the impacts of hybridization in wild populations and support conservation efforts to mitigate the consequences of anthropogenic and environmental change

Human brains preserve in diverse environments for at least 12 000 years

The brain is thought to be among the first human organs to decompose after death. The discovery of brains preserved in the archaeological record is therefore regarded as unusual. Although mechanisms such as dehydration, freezing, saponification, and tanning are known to allow for the preservation of the brain on short time scales in association with other soft tissues (≲4000 years), discoveries of older brains, especially in the absence of other soft tissues, are rare. Here, we collated an archive of more than 4400 human brains preserved in the archaeological record across approximately 12 000 years, more than 1300 of which constitute the only soft tissue preserved amongst otherwise skeletonized remains. We found that brains of this type persist on time scales exceeding those preserved by other means, which suggests an unknown mechanism may be responsible for preservation particular to the central nervous system. The untapped archive of preserved ancient brains represents an opportunity for bioarchaeological studies of human evolution, health and disease