Eyeless cave fish
oceans apart, but turn out to be cousins
They may have been isolated in respective caverns when
supercontinent Gondwana split
A group of freshwater fish in Madagascar and another in
Australia have a lot in common. Both are tiny, have no eyes and live in the
total darkness of limestone caves. Now scientists say these two groups are more
alike than thought — they are actually each other's closest cousins, despite
the ocean between them.Using DNA analysis, researchers found that the two types
of blind fish — Typhleotris in Madagascar and Milyeringa in Australia — descended
from a common ancestor and were estranged by continental drift nearly 100
million years ago. The scientists say their finding marks an important first."This
is the first time that a taxonomically robust study has shown that blind cave
vertebrates on either side of an ocean are each other's closest
relatives," researcher Prosanta Chakrabarty of Louisiana State University
said.
Read rest see pics here : http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48843519/ns/technology_and_science-science/#.UEB_VaM16yc
This has implications for cryptids, for example could all lake creatures be related?
Small dinosaur
'hunted like cat'
By Jonathan Ball BBC News
Some predatory dinosaurs used guile and agility to outwit
their feathered prey according to research.The work, by a Canadian-Chinese
team, is published in PLoS One.Researchers studied the fossil remains of two
Sinocalliopteryx dinosaurs and found they had been feasting on primitive birds
and flying dinosaurs.The prey could have been scavenged, but they argue that
the presence of several birds in the stomach of one fossil implied the prey was
actively hunted.The researchers suggested that to catch their prey, the
dinosaurs used ambush hunting techniques similar to modern cats.Determining how
dinosaurs lived is difficult - much of what we know is conjecture; built from a
smidgen of material evidence and prodigious amounts of informed opinion.
Read rest here :http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19426885
Just don't tell my cats lol.
DNA of girl from
Denisova cave gives up genetic secrets
By Helen Briggs BBC News
The DNA of a cave girl who lived about 80,000 years ago
has been analysed in remarkable detail.The picture of her genome is as accurate
as that of modern day human genomes, and shows she had brown eyes, hair and
skin.The research in Science also
sheds new light on the genetic differences between modern humans and their
closest extinct relatives.The cave dweller, a Denisovan, was a cousin of the
Neanderthals.Both groups of ancient humans died out about 30,000 years ago, but
have left their mark in the gene pool of modern people.
The Denisovans have mysterious origins. They appear to
have left little behind for palaeontologists save a tiny finger bone and a
wisdom tooth found in Siberia's Denisova cave in 2010. Though some researchers
have proposed a possible link between the Denisovans and human fossils from
China that have previously been difficult to classify.
Read rest here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19423147
Again could prove to be important if bigfoot is a cousin of the Yeti.
