MENSAJES FEBRERO  2001

La Recherche, Jan. 2001
Les premiers hommes hors d'Afrique (La Recherche 335 Enero/Jan 2001)
http://www.larecherche.fr/data/335/03350501.html

Nuestra seleccion / Our selection

SCIENCEVol 291 (5505)Feb 2 2001 
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol291/issue5505/index.shtml

Museum Collections and Conservation Efforts
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/291/5505/828c
   
WOMEN IN SCIENCE: College Heads Pledge to Remove Barriers
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/291/5505/806a   

Estimado Señor
No quiero abonarme a la sua lista de difusion, porque estoy mas
especializado en la Prehistoria reciente (Neolitico principalemente) que en
la Prehistoria Paleolitica, pero penso que los membros de la lista seran
interasados por el contenido de l'ultimo numero de la revista 'Prehistoire
du Sud-Ouest' (Prehistoria del Sudoeste de Francia). Los resumenes (en
castellaño, ingles y frances) de los articlos publicados son disponibles en
internet:
http://www.quercy.net/institutions/prehistoire_quercinoise/resumes00.html
hay también los resumenes de los articlos publicados anteriormente:
http://www.quercy.net/institutions/prehistoire_quercinoise/index.html

los articlos son els seguients:
Michel Lorblanchet y Guy Bariviera:
La cueva ornada de Pergouset (Saint-Gery, Lot)

Julien Sentis:
Las grabadas de la cueva de Pestillac (Montcabrier, Lot)

Julia Roussot-Larroque:
Laurent Coulonges y la naissance (the birth) del Sauveterriense

Julia Roussot-Larroque:
Sauveterriense y Sauveterrienses

Laure Fontana
La fauna de Pont-de-Longues (les martres de Veyres, Puyde Dome): analisis
archeozoologica de los restos faunisticos de un sitio magdaleniense de aire

Hay también articlos de Andre Coffyn sobre la paleometallurgia y de
Jean-Michel Beausoleil sobre incineraciones del Edad del Hierro pero penso
que los interesa menos.
Me disculpa por los francianismos, los italinaismos y los catalanismos
Gracias

Karim
Karim GERNIGON
UMR 5608
UTAH Préhistoire
Maison de la Recherche
Université Toulouse-le Mirail
31058 Toulouse Cedex
France
gernigon@u...
http://www.quercy.net/institutions/prehistoire_quercinoise/index.html

Nuestra selección / Our selection

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, Vol. 166 (3-4 ) 15-Feb-2001
http://www.elsevier.nl/locate/jnlnr/05355

Small vertebrate taphonomy of La Cueva del Llano, a volcanic cave on
Fuerteventura (Canary Islands, Spain). Palaeoecological implications
C. Castillo, E. Martín-Gonzalez, J.J. Coello
pp 293-317

Morphology and isotope heterogeneity of Late Quaternary pedogenic
carbonates: Implications for paleosol carbonates as
paleoenvironmental proxies
P. Deutz, I.P. Montanez, H.C. Monger, J. Morrison
pp 319-329

Changes of relative sea level during the past 5000 years in the
ancient harbor of Marseilles, Southern France
C. Morhange, J. Laborel, A. Hesnard
pp 331-344

Vertebrate Palaeontology, 2nd ed. - Michael J. Benton; Blackwell
Science, Oxford, 2000, 452 pages, ISBN 0-362-05614-2, @$24.95
R. Holmes, pp 425

Copyright Elsevier Science Ltd, 2001


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Nuestra selección / Our selection

Nature 8-2-2001 Vol. 409 pp. 649 - 744
http://www.nature.com/nature/


---------------------------------
nature science update
---------------------------------
relics: Early modern humans won hand over fist

Laboratorio de Prehistoria
Plaza Abadía s/n
Proaza 33114 Asturias
Spain
acpinto@l...
http://accuca.conectia.es 

Parece que han publicado en la revista The Proceedings of the National 
Academy of Sciences este artículo sobre la mano neandertal del que se hace 
eco la prensa portuguesa más abajo.

It has been published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of 
Sciences a paper on the neanderthal hand that is echoed by the Portuguese 
pres below.


Mãos dos Neandertais e dos Homens Modernos Eram Diferentes
Por TERESA FIRMINO
Quinta-feira, 8 de Fevereiro de 2001

CONSTRUÍDAS IMAGENS TRIDIMENSIONAIS DE FÓSSEIS DO MÉDIO ORIENTE
Estudo traz dados novos para o debate controverso sobre a extinção dos 
Neandertais há cerca de 28 mil anos
As mãos do homem de Neandertal e dos primeiros homens modernos eram 
diferentes. Robustas e musculadas, as dos Neandertais. Esguias e de dedos 
finos, as dos homens modernos. Mas será que estas diferenças podem ser 
parte da explicação para o desaparecimento dos Neandertais e para o sucesso 
do homem moderno? O antropólogo norte-americano Wesley Niewoehner diz que 
sim - e baseia essa interpretação nas diferenças da palma da mão e do pulso 
dos Neandertais e dos primeiros homens modernos. Mas para o arqueólogo 
português João Zilhão, essas distinções devem-se ao facto de os dois tipos 
de homens terem modos de vida diferentes, o que resulta em algo como 
comparar as mãos de um pugilista com as de uma costureira.

Wesley Niewoehner, da Universidade do Novo México, usou fósseis de homens 
que viveram há cerca de 100 mil anos, no Médio Oriente: Neandertais do 
Iraque, Israel e da Síria e homens modernos arcaicos encontrados em Israel, 
nas grutas de Skhul e Qafzeh. Depois fez reconstruções tridimensionais da 
mão e publicou os resultados na revista norte-americana "The Proceedings of 
the National Academy of Sciences".

A ideia era ver se as diferenças encontradas reflectiam formas igualmente 
diferentes de produzir e pegar em utensílios. E, em última análise, se isso 
teria sido mais vantajoso ou desvantajoso.

Os Neandertais e os homens modernos, a espécie a que pertencemos, têm 
estado no centro de uma acalorada controvérsia na comunidade científica. 
São muitos os mistérios. Por exemplo, que tipo de relacionamento existia 
entre eles: cruzaram-se ou, ao invés, fizeram a guerra?

O que se sabe é que, durante dezenas de milhares de anos - entre há 140 mil 
e 50 mil anos -, os dois tipos de homem coexistiram no Médio Oriente. E 
que, aos poucos, desde há 40 mil anos, os homens modernos foram avançado 
pela Europa e os Neandertais, sem se saber porquê, foram recuando até à 
Península Ibérica, de onde desapareceram há 28 mil anos.

Os utensílios de pedra dos dois tipos de homem naquela altura eram bastante 
semelhantes. Mas como é que homens anatomicamente diferentes fabricavam 
ferramentas idênticas, como pontas usadas na extremidade de armas de 
arremesso? Niewoehner foi à procura de respostas na morfologia das mãos. 
Concluiu que os instrumentos até podiam ser muito parecidos, mas a 
diferente morfologia do pulso e da palma da mão indica que as capacidades 
de manipulação também eram distintas.

"As mãos dos Neandertais estavam mais adaptadas à força e a uma menor 
precisão em agarrar objectos", explica ao PÚBLICO Niewoehner. Os 
Neandertais segurava melhor os objectos na palma da mão, com a ajuda do 
polegar. "Já as mãos dos fósseis modernos de Skhul e Qafzeh - continua o 
autor do estudo - estavam mais adaptadas a usar instrumentos com cabos e a 
fazer movimentos de precisão com os dedos."

O pugilista e a costureira
Só que a interpretação de Niewoehner vai ainda mais longe. Relaciona as 
diferenças na mão com o sucesso dos homens modernos e com a extinção dos 
Neandertais. "Estas diferenças podem ser uma pista para diferenças de 
comportamento importantes entre estes dois grupos de homens, que 
provavelmente contribuíram para a morte dos Neandertais - mas não foram a 
única razão", diz ao PÚBLICO o antropólogo.

Na sua perspectiva da evolução humana, os primeiros homens modernos tiveram 
a vantagem de conseguir manipular instrumentos mais complexos. "O uso mais 
eficiente de ferramentas poderá ter dado aos homens modernos uma vantagem 
reprodutiva sobre os Neandertais", afirma.

João Zilhão, presidente do Instituto Português de Arqueologia, não concorda 
com esta interpretação. "Diferenças no modo de vida poderão estar 
relacionadas com as diferenças que aparecem nos ossos da mão. Não têm um 
significado de superioridade ou inferioridade dos Neandertais", diz João 
Zilhão.

O homem de Neandertal alimentava-se quase só dos animais de grande porte 
que caçava, e isso implicaria mais trabalho de braços e mãos e uma maior 
robusticidade. Os primeiros homens modernos tinham, porém, uma dieta mais 
diversificada: além de animais pequenos, apanhavam plantas e bagas dos 
campos, o que também se reflectiria no esqueleto. "Experimente-se pôr um 
pugilista a fazer renda. Ou uma costureira num combate de boxe. A senhora 
não ia longe", comenta arqueólogo português. Diga-se que o pugilista também 
não.

João Zilhão sublinha, antes, que é preciso olhar para os instrumentos 
encontrados no Médio Oriente, que são semelhantes. Não têm níveis de 
complexidade diferentes. Logo, não apoiam a ideia de que os homens modernos 
teriam de ter mais capacidades de manipulação. É que naquela altura, lembra 
o arqueólogo, nem os Neandertais nem os homens modernos possuíam arpões ou 
faziam as delicadas pinturas rupestres. Seriam os homens modernos a 
inventá-los, dezenas de milhares de anos mais tarde, quando os Neandertais 
já cá não estavam.

Nuestra selección      Science 291 (5506) 9/2/2001      Our selection
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol291/issue5506/index.shtml
©2000 by The American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Editors' Choice: Highlights of the recent literature
------------------------------------------------------------------
ANTHROPOLOGY: Dating Nanjing Man
Recently discovered remains of Homo erectus at sites in China are providing 
an opportunity to assess the early migration of hominids out of Africa and 
their relation to the later populations of H. sapiens that emerged there 
about 500,000 years ago. A major difficulty, however, has been obtaining 
accurate dates for many of the fossils; this has hampered comparisons 
across sites and confounded the evolutionary history. The ages of the 
fossils are well beyond the dating range of radiocarbon, and most of the 
finds have been in caves lacking volcanic horizons (which can be K-Ar dated).
Zhao et al. now have obtained consistent dates for the H. erectus fossils 
known as Nanjing Man (and evidently related to the famous Peking Man) from 
Tangshan Cave. They dated the cave deposits directly overlying the fossils 
using the incorporation of uranium and its decay to thorium in 
calcite-forming flowstone in the caves. The fossils appear to be older than 
580,000 years and probably are about 620,000 years old. These ages, along 
with those from others sites in China, imply that most of the H. erectus 
specimens there are older than previously thought and perhaps do not 
overlap significantly younger H. sapiens. -- BH
Geology 29, 27 (2001).

Reports
--------------------
Recolonizing Carnivores and Naive Prey: Conservation Lessons from
Pleistocene Extinctions. Joel Berger, Jon E. Swenson, and Inga-Lill Persson
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/291/5506/1036
The current extinction of many of Earth's large terrestrial carnivores has 
left some extant prey species lacking knowledge about contemporary 
predators, a situation roughly parallel to that 10,000 to 50,000 years ago, 
when naïve animals first encountered colonizing human hunters. Along 
present-day carnivore recolonization fronts, brown (also called grizzly) 
bears killed predator-naïve adult moose at disproportionately high rates in 
Scandinavia, and moose mothers who lost juveniles to recolonizing wolves in 
North America's Yellowstone region developed hypersensitivity to wolf 
howls. Although prey that had been unfamiliar with dangerous predators for 
as few as 50 to 130 years were highly vulnerable to initial encounters, 
behavioral adjustments to reduce predation transpired within a single 
generation. The fact that at least one prey species quickly learns to be 
wary of restored carnivores should negate fears about localized prey 
extinction.

Letters
--------------------
Venezuelan Response to Yanomamo Book
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/291/5506/985b

Discovery of Earliest Hominid Remains
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/291/5506/986a

Perspectives
--------------------
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION: Enhanced: The Risk of Extinction--What You Don't
Know Will Hurt You   John L. Gittleman and Matthew E. Gompper
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/291/5506/997

Webmaster: Pasa a Noticiario Internacional
Esto viene de Buenos Aires (Argentina). Gracias a M. Cagliari por la info.

This comes from Buenos Aires (Argentina). Thanks to M. Cagliary for the info.
Abstract: Dr. Ross McPhee from the Natural History Museum of New York says 
that big mammals got quickly extinct because of diseases transmitted by 
humans, such as flu and cold.

Fuente: Diario Clarín (Argentina), 03/02/2001. ALL IN SPANISH
CIENCIA: ANALIZAN RESTOS DE ESTOS GIGANTES PREHISTORICOS
Una revolucionaria teoría sobre la extinción de los mamuts
Un paleontólogo del Museo de Historia Natural de Nueva York sostiene que se 
contagiaron enfermedades humanas como la gripe, que los diezmó · Lo mismo 
habría ocurrido con armadillos y mastodontes
ROBIN MCKIE. The Observer. Especial para Clarín.

	Fueron las criaturas más notables de cuantas hayan habitado la faz de la 
Tierra. Durante una eternidad, mamuts, mastodontes, armadillos gigantes, 
roedores con dientes enormes, perezosos del tamaño de jirafas y tigres con 
dientes de sable dominaron las selvas y llanuras de América del Norte y del 
Sur.
	De pronto, hace 10.000 años, se esfumaron de la superficie del planeta, 
desaparición que sigue siendo objeto de acalorados debates en la comunidad 
científica.
	Un prestigioso paleontólogo sostiene ahora que descubrió la causa de la 
extinción: esos enormes animales murieron porque los seres humanos les 
transmitieron tos y resfríos. "Más de 130 especies desaparecieron en un 
período de tal vez medio milenio o menos", explicó el doctor Ross MacPhee, 
del Museo de Historia Natural de los Estados Unidos, que tiene sede en 
Nueva York. "Las enfermedades son lo único que podría haber causado eso".
	Charles Darwin describió la desaparición de los grandes mamíferos. 
"Resulta imposible no asombrarse cuando se reflexiona sobre el continente 
americano", señaló. "Antes debe haber abundado en grandes monstruos; ahora 
sólo hallamos pigmeos".
	Durante los siguientes cien años, los científicos trataron de descubrir el 
motivo por el que habían desaparecido los mamuts, mastodontes y perezosos 
gigantes. Luego empezaron a datar los huesos de estas criaturas y hallaron 
que todas se habían esfumado en cuestión de unos centenares de años.
	Fue para esa época que los seres humanos empezaron a pasar de Asia a 
América a través de un puente terrestre que comunicaba Siberia con Alaska y 
dejaron rastros de sus progresos, tales como puntas de flechas de piedra. 
Estos primeros americanos eran evidentemente grandes cazadores, y pronto se 
los responsabilizó de la extinción de los mamuts y mastodontes del continente.
	"Los grandes animales no desaparecieron porque se quedaron sin alimento, 
sino porque ellos pasaron a serlo", sostiene el doctor Paul Martin, de la 
Universidad de Arizona, uno de los defensores de la "hipótesis de la caza 
exhaustiva".
	Esta teoría, sin embargo, tiene un importante punto débil, según 
descubrieron los científicos: hay muy pocas pruebas que la sustenten. A 
pesar de la existencia de gran cantidad de fósiles, se hallaron sólo seis 
huesos de mamut con puntas de lanza clavadas. En lo que respecta a las 
otras 130 especies desaparecidas, ni uno solo de los fósiles fue encontrado 
cerca de una flecha ni con muestras de haberse convertido en presa de caza.
	"La gente cazaba, pero no en una escala que pueda haber afectado la 
supervivencia de las especies", indicó MacPhee. "Tendrían que haberse 
dedicado a matar animales todo el tiempo, y eso es algo que se hace con un 
propósito determinado. Es impensable que los hombres se hayan dedicado a 
matar sin motivo, sobre todo cuando se trataba de animales muy grandes y 
peligrosos, como los mamuts".
	MacPhee considera que estas gigantes criaturas fueron víctimas, no de la 
agresión humana, sino de enfermedades de los hombres o de animales como 
perros o ratas, que viajaban con éstos. "Es posible imaginar una situación 
en la que, sobre todo tratándose de animales gregarios, el germen patógeno 
podría afectar toda una colonia en cuestión de días -sostuvo- puede haber 
sido un verdadero tendal, sin que hubiera ninguna amenaza clara a la vista".
	MacPhee destaca que epidemias que introdujeron recientemente los hombres 
provocaron la extinción de especies de ranas y sapos en América del Norte y 
de colonias enteras de aves como el pitpit hawaiano. De la misma manera, 
los perros salvajes africanos del Serengeti murieron como consecuencia del 
moquillo canino que les transmitieron los perros domésticos, y la ictericia 
-que ingresó a Africa hace cien años- provocó la muerte de millones de ñus, 
antílopes y otros animales.
	Tales brotes resultan triviales en comparación con lo que pueden haber 
desatado los seres humanos que salían de Africa y Asia y llegaban a América 
por primera vez. "Organismos de todo tipo pueden haber llegado a lugares 
donde los hombres nunca habían estado antes", dijo MacPhee, cuyas ideas 
publicará el mes próximo Scientific American. En un intento de probar esta 
hipótesis, MacPhee se dedica a analizar tejidos de mamuts. Aspira a extraer 
el ADN de bacterias, virus y protozoarios para confirmar así su teoría.
	Si tiene éxito, considerará que habrá demostrado que nuestro planeta y 
todas sus especies, entre ellas los humanos, siempre serán muy vulnerables 
a las enfermedades. Así como contagiamos y matamos a los mamuts, también el 
reino animal nos transmitió enfermedades, desde la gripe -que se originó en 
las aves de corral- hasta el sida, que se desarrolló en los simios.
	Una enfermedad podría mutar y tener consecuencias tan letales como la que 
arrasó con los perezosos gigantes, los mamuts y los mastodontes".
Fuente: Diario Clarín (Argentina), 03/02/2001.

Niewoehner, W. A. Behavioural inferences from the Skhul/Qafzeh early modern 
human hand remains. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2, [in 
press] (2001).
© Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2001 - NATURE NEWS SERVICE
________________________________________________________________________________\
_____
relics: Early modern humans won hand over fist
TOM CLARKE

Nimble-fingered Neanderthals did not have the kind of gentle grip that 
allowed their cousins, the early modern humans, to capitalize on complex 
stone tools with handles, a new study of hominid hand bones reveals1.

Neanderthals, though stocky and well-muscled, were probably too ham-fisted 
to make effective use of advanced Stone Age technology or to perform 
dexterous tasks such as carving, Wesley Niewoehner, an anthropologist at 
the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, calculates. This lends weight 
to the idea that early modern humans out-lived the Neanderthals because of 
their superior use of the same kinds of tools.

Niewoehner has built 3D digital maps of the surfaces of the metacarpals, 
the bones that make up the palm of the hand, from the hominids. The shapes 
of the ends of the metacarpals reflect the kind of grip these hominids had.

Niewhoehner’s maps suggest that the smaller, slimmer hands of early modern 
humans were better suited to 'oblique' grips — used when holding a complex 
tool with a handle, such as a hammer.

Neanderthals, on the other hand, would have had a more powerful yet less 
subtle grip. "Like the one you’d use for gripping a softball or a rock," 
explains Steven Churchill, an anthropologist at Duke University in Durham, 
North Carolina, who studies the behaviour of Neanderthals and early modern 
humans.

So, whereas Neanderthals could probably hold and use complex tools, they 
couldn’t have done so very often or very skilfully, and would not have been 
capable of more sophisticated tasks such as carving and painting, which 
early moderns went on to develop.

"This shows that although they had the same general technology, they were 
using it in different ways," says Paul Pettitt, an archaeologist at Oxford 
University.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Niewoehner, W. A. Behavioural inferences from the Skhul/Qafzeh early modern 
human hand remains. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2, [in 
press] (2001).
© Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2001 - NATURE NEWS SERVICE

Cris, pon esto en noticias internacional, gracias.

PENINJ
http://archaeology.about.com/library/atlas/bltanzania.htm
Online News  January 31, 2001
WORLD'S EARLIEST WOODWORKING?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Manuel Dominguez-Rodrigo of the Universidad Complutense, Madrid, examines 
material recently excavated at Peninj, Tanzania (Courtesy Universidad 
Complutense, Madrid)
Did Homo erectus take shop? An assemblage of 1.5-million-year-old stone 
hand axes unearthed in Tanzania says yes, contends Manuel Dominguez-Rodrigo 
of the Universidad Complutense, Madrid, who recently excavated the tools at 
Peninj, a site west of Lake Natron. The axes, worn from heavy use, bear 
traces of acacia wood on their blades, the world's earliest evidence for 
woodworking. "Until now," says Dominguez-Rodrigo, "it was believed that our 
ancestors' toolkit was limited to simple hand-held stone tools until about 
500,000 years ago, when wooden tools and weapons appear to have come into 
use. The oldest-known wooden implements, from 400,000 years ago, are a set 
of spruce spears, found near Hannover, Germany, and a yew lance tip from 
Clacton-on-Sea, England; a 500,000-year-old fossilized rhinoceros shoulder 
blade with a projectile point wound was found recently at Boxgrove, 
England, attesting the development of spears by that date. "That our 
forebears had the ability to fashion wood into utensils a million years 
earlier than previously thought," adds Dominguez-Rodrigo, "will cause us to 
reassess our understanding of their ability to hunt and gather." As for 
what may have been crafted of acacia wood at Peninj remains to be 
determined; no wooden artifacts were recovered.--ANGELA M.H. SCHUSTER
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2001 by the Archaeological Institute of America
http://www.archaeology.org/online/news/wood.html

Animal Behaviour 61 (1) January 2001
http://www.idealibrary.com/links/toc/anbe/61/1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Social influences on foraging in vertebrates: causal mechanisms and
adaptive functions
Bennett G. Galef, Jr, Luc-Alain Giraldeau
pp. 3-15 (doi:10.1006/anbe.2000.1557)
http://www.idealibrary.com/links/doi/10.1006/anbe.2000.1557
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Do chimpanzees know what conspecifics know?
Brian Hare, Josep Call, Michael Tomasello
pp. 139-151 (doi:10.1006/anbe.2000.1518)
http://www.idealibrary.com/links/doi/10.1006/anbe.2000.1518

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Al fin publicado / At last published

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Vol. 98, Issue 4, 1358-1363, February 13, 2001
Evidence of termite foraging by Swartkrans early hominids
(bone tools / Australopithecus robustus / southern Africa / Lower Paleolithic)

Lucinda R. Backwell*, and Francesco d'Errico,§
* Palaeo-Anthropology Unit for Research and Exploration, Department of 
Palaeontology, Palaeo-Anthropology Research Group, and  Department of 
Anatomical Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Wits, 
2050, Johannesburg, South Africa; and  Institut de Préhistoire et de 
Géologie du Quaternaire, Unité Mixte de Recherche 5808 du Centre National 
de la Recherche Scientifique, Bâtiment 18, Avenue des Facultés, 33405 
Talence, France

Communicated by Erik Trinkaus, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, 
November 20, 2000 (received for review September 14, 2000)

Previous studies have suggested that modified bones from the Lower 
Paleolithic sites of Swartkrans and Sterkfontein in South Africa represent 
the oldest known bone tools and that they were used by Australopithecus 
robustus to dig up tubers. Macroscopic and microscopic analysis of the wear 
patterns on the purported bone tools, pseudo bone tools produced naturally 
by known taphonomic processes, and experimentally used bone tools confirm 
the anthropic origin of the modifications. However, our analysis suggests 
that these tools were used to dig into termite mounds, rather than to dig 
for tubers. This result indicates that early hominids from southern Africa 
maintained a behavioral pattern involving a bone tool material culture that 
may have persisted for a long period and strongly supports the role of 
insectivory in the early hominid diet.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
§ To whom reprint requests should be addressed. E-mail: 
f.derrico@iquat.u-bordeaux.fr.

This article has been cited by other articles:
Shipman, P. (2001). What can you do with a bone fragment?. Proc. Natl. 
Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 98: 1335-1337 [Full Text]

Related Commentary in PNAS:

What can you do with a bone fragment?.
Pat Shipman
PNAS 2001 98: 1335-1337. [Full Text]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Copyright © 2001 by the National Academy of Sciences

New Scientist 17-2-2001
http://www.newscientist.com/news/newsletter.jsp?id=ns227841

Less is more
Our genes are subtler than we ever guessed
Philip Cohen and Andy Coghlan
 From New Scientist magazine, 17 February 2001.

IT'S not how many genes you've got, it's what you do with them that counts. 
That's one of the key revelations about the human genome announced this week.

The first look at our genetic panorama, the result of a massive effort by 
both public and private groups, fills more than 100 pages in Nature and 
Science. "It's the first time we've stood back to look at the landscape of 
our own human biology," says Francis Collins, head of genome research at 
the National Institutes of Health near Washington DC. "It's a milestone of 
the highest order."

The nuggets that scientists are eager to find in this new territory are our 
genes, regions of DNA that are copied to make RNA templates for producing 
proteins. The most surprising revelation of the two reports is that our 
genes are rarer treasures than nearly anyone guessed. Ten years ago, most 
researchers predicted that our cells harboured about 100,000 genes.

But the two independent genome groups, using different strategies to sift 
through the sequence, discovered a mere 27,000 to 40,000 human genes. "The 
small number of genes has tremendous implications," says Craig Venter of 
Celera. "The fruit fly genome has only 13,000 or so genes, and we're so 
much larger and smarter that we thought we should have a lot more genes."

Also humbling is the discovery of 223 genes that our ancestors appear to 
have acquired directly from bacteria. This must have occurred when wayward 
bacterial DNA became integrated into the DNA inside the sperm or egg of a 
distant vertebrate forebear. Today, many of these genes appear to play a 
crucial role in our biology.

But about 22 per cent of vertebrate genes aren't found in worms or flies 
(see Diagram). In fact, vertebrates can lay claim to a certain amount of 
innovation when it comes to protein design, such as the invention of new 
structural elements that many proteins share. Our proteins also tend to 
have more complex arrangements of these elements.

But the secret of our complexity may lie not in the numbers of our genes, 
but how we use them, says Richard Myers of Stanford University. "A fine 
sports car and a junker may have the same number of pieces," he says. "The 
difference is the quality of parts and the sophistication with which we put 
them together."

For example, genes usually come in segments. By "splicing out" some 
segments of the RNA templates for proteins, or using one segment rather 
than another, a single gene can yield many different proteins. The same 
gene can be used to make one protein in, say, muscle, and another in the 
brain. Up to 60 per cent of our genes produce these "splice variants".

Another key finding from both public and private genome efforts is that 
many human "transcription factors" are unique and a cut above those of the 
fly and the worm. Transcription factors and other regulatory proteins 
dictate which genes are switched on at vital stages of development, as 
embryos form and organs take shape. It is they that orchestrate such 
amazing complexity from so few genes.

Venter thinks all higher vertebrates have roughly the same genes. What's 
important is when they are switched on and off, he says. "We have the same 
number of genes as cats and dogs, but differently regulated."

If we don't have as many genes as some hoped, no one can be disappointed by 
our vast collection of clutter. It turns out that the coding regions of 
genes fill a scant 1.5 per cent of our genome, while repetitive copies of 
"jumping genes", or transposons, claim about half our DNA real estate.

While transposons appear to be just junk, they may have helped us to 
evolve. Most are now inactive, but when they first arrived they were able 
to hop from place to place in our genome. This helped to rearrange the DNA 
in chromosomes, creating new genes. Indeed, one newly discovered 
transposon, MER85, appears to contain an active gene that is switched on in 
the brains of fetuses.

Our chromosomes also turn out to be remarkably variable. Genetic oases are 
often surrounded by vast geneless deserts. And Rogier Versteeg at the 
University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands and his colleagues report that 
highly active genes are often grouped together in what he calls regions of 
increased gene expression, or RIDGEs, where the transcription of genes 
zooms along at 200 times the rate found elsewhere. "These are like 
factories just churning out RNA," says Versteeg.

Another property that is unevenly distributed through the genome is 
recombination--the exchange of DNA segments between pairs of chromosomes 
during the formation of sperm and eggs. James Weber of the Marshfield 
Medical Research Foundation in Wisconsin and his colleagues found that 
there are dead spots for recombination, as well as "jungles", where 
chromosomes switch pieces 100 times as often.

Nothing that has been found so far in the DNA sequence predicts where 
recombination is likely to occur. Another twist is that the preferred sites 
of recombination differ substantially between men and women.

A final enigma is how cavalier we are about where we keep genes. Most 
biologists had bet that the ends of chromosomes, or telomeres, would be 
gene-free zones because telomeres shorten throughout our lifetime.

But when Robert Moyzis of the University of California, Irvine, searched 
for genes near telomeres, he found 500 candidates. Putting precious genes 
in telomeres is like building homes on an earthquake zone. "I frankly can't 
come up with a good reason to do that," he says. Intriguingly, this 
suggests that some aspects of ageing could be caused by genetic changes 
triggered by telomere shrinkage.

The work is only just starting. "The important thing to realise is that 
some of us are already using this sequence every day to solve problems in 
biology," Myers adds. "And people will be doing that for decades, if not 
millennia."

Philip Cohen and Andy Coghlan
 From New Scientist magazine, 17 February 2001.

Our selection from this week's Science
Nuestra selección de Science de esta semana

SCIENCE, Volume 291, Issue 5507, The Human Genome
dated February 16 2001, is now available at:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol291/issue5507/index.shtml

The Sequence of the Human Genome,
J. Craig Venter et al.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/291/5507/1304
p. 1304

Birth of Two Chimeric Genes in the Hominidae Lineage
Anouk Courseaux, Jean-Louis Nahon
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/291/5507/1293
Abstract
How genes with newly characterized functions originate remains a 
fundamental question. PMCHL1 and PMCHL2, two chimeric genes derived from 
the melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) gene, offer an opportunity to 
examine such an issue in the human lineage. Detailed structural, 
expression, and phylogenetic analysis showed that the PMCHL1 gene was 
created near 25 million years ago (Ma) by a complex mechanism of exon 
shuffling through retrotransposition of an antisense MCH messenger RNA 
coupled to de novo creation of splice sites. PMCHL2 arose 5 to 10 Ma by an 
event of duplication involving a large chromosomal region encompassing the 
PMCHL1 locus. The RNA expression patterns of those chimeric genes suggest 
that they have been submitted to strong regulatory constraints during 
primate evolution.

Nuestra selección / Selected papers
Nature 15 February 2001 Volume 409 No. 6822
http://www.nature.com/nature/

Interhemispheric climate links revealed by a late-glacial cooling
episode in southern Chile
P I MORENO, G L JACOBSON, T V LOWELL & G H DENTON
http://www.nature.com/nlink/v409/n6822/abs/409804a0_fs.html

Evolutionary analyses of the human genome
WEN-HSIUNG LI, ZHENGLONG GU, HAIDONG WANG & ANTON NEKRUTENKO
http://www.nature.com/nlink/v409/n6822/abs/409847a0_fs.html
Abstract
Evolutionary analyses of the human genome
WEN-HSIUNG LI, ZHENGLONG GU, HAIDONG WANG & ANTON NEKRUTENKO
The completion of the human genome will greatly accelerate the development 
of a new branch of science—evolutionary genomics. We can now directly 
address important questions about the evolutionary history of human genes 
and their regulatory sequences. Computational analyses of the human genome 
will reveal the number of genes and repetitive elements, the extent of gene 
duplication and compositional heterogeneity in the human genome, and the 
extent of domain shuffling and domain sharing among proteins. Here we 
present some first glimpses of these features.

Selección JAS / JAS Selection

Journal of Archaeological Science, Vol. 28 (2) Feb. 2001
http://www.idealibrary.com/links/toc/jasc/28/2

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Explaining the Development of Dietary Dominance by a Single Ungulate Taxon
at Grotte XVI, Dordogne, France
Donald K. Grayson, Francoise Delpech, Jean-Philippe Rigaud, Jan F. Simek
pp. 115-125 (doi:10.1006/jasc.2000.0556)
http://www.idealibrary.com/links/doi/10.1006/jasc.2000.0556
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 From Lithics to Spatial and Social Organization: Interpreting the Lithic
Distribution and Raw Material Composition at
the Final Palaeolithic Site of Kettig (Central Rhineland, Germany)
Michael Baales
pp. 127-141 (doi:10.1006/jasc.1999.0545)
http://www.idealibrary.com/links/doi/10.1006/jasc.1999.0545
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Luminescence Properties of Chert and some Archaeological Applications
D. Glen Akridge, Paul H. Benoit
pp. 143-151 (doi:10.1006/jasc.2000.0552)
http://www.idealibrary.com/links/doi/10.1006/jasc.2000.0552
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sego Lilies and Prehistoric Foragers: Return Rates, Pit Ovens, and
Carbohydrates
Craig S. Smith, William Martin, Kristine A. Johansen
pp. 169-183 (doi:10.1006/jasc.2000.0554)
http://www.idealibrary.com/links/doi/10.1006/jasc.2000.0554
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archaeofaunal Relative Abundance, Sample Size, and Statistical Methods
Michael D. Cannon
pp. 185-195 (doi:10.1006/jasc.2000.0558)
http://www.idealibrary.com/links/doi/10.1006/jasc.2000.0558
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Firing Techniques of the Impasti from the Protohistoric Site of Concordia
Sagittaria (Venice)
M. Bertelle, S. Calogero, G. Leotta, L. Stievano, R. Salerno, R. Segnan
pp. 197-211 (doi:10.1006/jasc.2000.0650)
http://www.idealibrary.com/links/doi/10.1006/jasc.2000.0650

(c) Harcourt, Inc.

New Scientist
http://www.newscientist.com/dailynews/news.jsp?id=ns9999436
Herding instinct
Genetic analysis suggests that pigs and sheep were domesticated 
twice - once in Europe, once in Asia 


From the annual meeting of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science in San Francisco 

Genetic analysis of livestock suggests our ancient ancestors in Asia 
and in Europe achieved simultaneous farming feats - the domestication 
of pigs, sheep, water buffalo and cattle.

In 1994, Daniel Bradley at Trinity College Dublin studied the 
mitochondrial DNA of modern cattle, and concluded that their 
ancestors were domesticated twice, at two sites separated by 
thousands of miles.

Now his analysis of DNA data from modern pigs, sheep and water 
buffalo has thrown up the same "striking" differences in the genetic 
profiles of animals in different parts of the modern world.

"We found that in cattle, there are two separate foci of genetic 
diversity in the mitochondrial DNA, and it seemed likely we were 
looking at two separate captures from the wild. Now we have found 
that this duality runs right through sheep, pigs and water buffalo. 
There is the same theme of east and west," Bradley says.


Fertile Crescent 


The DNA data suggests that cattle were domesticated between 8,000 and 
10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent of the Levant (which 
stretches through Turkey, Jordan and Iraq) and in the Indus valley. 
Sheep were also first herded by people in the same areas. 

Pigs were domesticated in the Fertile Crescent, and probably in 
China, while the water buffalo was first domesticated in southern 
China and at another as yet unidentified location further west.

Bradley's team looked at mitochondrial DNA, Y chromosomes and DNA 
markers called microsatellites. All three sets of data threw up 
striking differences between groups of animals living in different 
parts of the world. 

Bradley concludes that the animals descended from two separate groups 
of common ancestors, domesticated at roughly the same time.


Interbreeding 


However, the data do not prove that two entirely separate 'captures' 
of wild animals took place. Bradley admits it is possible that humans 
domesticated an animal, and moved with it. When they settled an area 
that was home to a distantly related species, interbreeding could 
have created the second distinct genetic profile.

But other researchers support Bradley's hypothesis.

"With domestication, you're selecting for behaviour," says Melinda 
Zeder of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. "Wherever there 
are wild animals with suitable characteristics and the right 
population densities and environmental conditions, this can trigger 
relationships with people. This can happen in many different areas of 
the world."

Previous research has shown that the goat was the first animal to be 
domesticated. This took place in the Fertile Crescent just under 
10,000 years ago.

Correspondence about this story should be directed to 
latestnews@newscientist.com 

2106 GMT, 17 February 2001

Emma Young, San Francisco

SCIENCE-WEEK
http://www.scienceweek.com
February 16, 2001 -- Vol. 5 Number 7
------------------------------------
I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing.
I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing
than to have answers which might be wrong. I have
approximate answers and possible beliefs and different
degrees of certainty about different things, but I'm not
absolutely sure of anything and there are many things
I don't know anything about...
Richard Feynman (1918-1988)
------------------------------------
5. ANTHROPOLOGY: ANCIENT DNA AND THE ORIGIN OF MODERN HUMANS
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
5. ANTHROPOLOGY: ANCIENT DNA AND THE ORIGIN OF MODERN HUMANS
... ... G.J. Adcock et al (7 authors at 3 installations, AU)
present a report of a study of mitochondrial DNA sequences in
ancient Australians of modern morphology, the authors making the
following points:
     1) The authors point out that since its beginning more than
25 years ago, the debate over recent human origins has focused on
two models. The regional-continuity hypothesis postulates that
ever since humans began to migrate out of Africa more than 1.5
million years ago, there has been a single evolving species, Homo
sapiens, distributed throughout the Old World, with all regional
populations connected, as they are today, by gene flow. Some
skeletal features developed and persisted for varying periods in
the different regions, so that recognizable regional morphologies
have developed in Africa, Europe, and Asia.
     2) The other view, the "recent out of Africa" model, argues
that over the period since humans began to leave Africa, there
have been several species of Homo. In this model, H. sapiens
emerged in Africa approximately 100,000 years ago and then spread
globally, replacing other species of Homo that it encountered
during the expansion. This model proposes that all current
regional morphologies, especially those outside Africa, developed
within the last 100,000 years.
     3) These alternative models arose from interpretations of
morphological evidence. During the last 15 years, molecular data,
particularly nucleotide sequences drawn from populations of
living humans, have made an increasing contribution to the
debate. Analysis has demonstrated that humans have remarkably
little mitochondrial DNA sequence variation, and that the
earliest branching lineages are found in East Africa. These
findings were interpreted as strongly supporting the "recent out
of Africa" model. The authors suggest, however, that this
interpretation fails to recognize that the demographic history of
a species cannot be inferred from the pattern of variation of a
single nucleotide segment. Patterns of variation in different
regions of the genome must be considered and interpreted in the
context of paleontological and archeological evidence.
     4) The authors report mitochondrial DNA sequence evidence
from 10 fossils, all agreed to be anatomically modern, rather
than archaic, Homo sapiens (4 "*gracile" and 6 "*robust"
specimens). The 10 fossils range in age from less than 10,000
years ago to approximately 60,000 years ago. The authors report
that in one fossil (Lake Mungo 3, dated at 60,000 years ago), the
mitochondrial DNA sequence is the most divergent of all of the
Australian fossils analyzed, and this is evidently an example of
a mitochondrial DNA lineage that existed in an ancient modern
human but is absent in living human mitochondria. The authors
state: "Our data present a serious challenge to interpretation of
contemporary human mitochondrial DNA variation as supporting the
'recent out of Africa' model. A separate mitochondrial DNA
lineage in an individual whose morphology is within the
contemporary range and who lived in Australia would imply [from
the out of Africa model and its usage of mitochondrial DNA data]
both that anatomically modern humans were among those that were
replaced and that part of the replacement occurred in Australia."
... ...  In a commentary on this work, John H. Relethford (State
University of New York College of Oneonta, US) states: "If the
mitochondrial DNA present in a modern human (Lake Mungo 3) can
become extinct, then perhaps something similar happened to the
mitochondrial DNA of *Neanderthals. If so, then the absence of
Neanderthal mitochondrial DNA in living humans does not reject
the possibility of _some_ genetic continuity with modern
humans... The modern human origins debate can be informed by
genetic data, both living and ancient, but can only be resolved
by also considering the fossil and archeological evidence. The
picture presented by Adcock et al suggests that modern human
origins were more complicated than once envisioned."
-----------
G.J. Adcock et al: Mitochondrial DNA sequences in ancient
Australians: Implications for modern human origins.
(Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. US 16 Jan 01 98:537)
QY: W. James Peacock: jim.peacock@pi.csiro.au
-----------
John H. Relethford: Ancient DNA and the origin of modern humans.
(Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. US 16 Jan 01 98:390)
QY: John H. Relethford: relethjh@oneonta.edu
-----------
Summary & Notes by SCIENCE-WEEK http://scienceweek.com
16Feb01
For more information: http://scienceweek.com/swfr.htm
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

   Journal of Human Evolution Vol. 40 (3)March 2001
   http://www.idealibrary.com/links/toc/jhev/40/3
       
   Fossil Macaca remains from RDB quarry (Villafranca d'Asti, Italy): 
   new data and overview 
   Lorenzo Rook, Alberto Mottura, Sergio Gentili
   pp. 187-202  (doi:10.1006/jhev.2000.0449)
   http://www.idealibrary.com/links/doi/10.1006/jhev.2000.0449
        
   Diets of fossil primates from the Fayum Depression of Egypt: a 
   quantitative analysis of molar shearing 
   E. Christopher Kirk, Elwyn L. Simons
   pp. 203-229  (doi:10.1006/jhev.2000.0450)
   http://www.idealibrary.com/links/doi/10.1006/jhev.2000.0450
        
      (c) Harcourt, Inc.

SCIENCE, Vol. 291 (5508) 23 Feb. 2001
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Variability in the El Nino-Southern Oscillation Through a Glacial-
Interglacial Cycle; A. W. Tudhope et al.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/291/5508/1511
Abstract
The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the most potent source of 
interannual climate variability. Uncertainty surrounding the impact of 
greenhouse warming on ENSO strength and frequency has stimulated efforts to 
develop a better understanding of the sensitivity of ENSO to climate 
change. Here we use annually banded corals from Papua New Guinea to show 
that ENSO has existed for the past 130,000 years, operating even during 
"glacial" times of substantially reduced regional and global temperature 
and changed solar forcing. However, we also find that during the 20th 
century ENSO has been strong compared with ENSO of previous cool (glacial) 
and warm (interglacial) times. The observed pattern of change in amplitude 
may be due to the combined effects of ENSO dampening during cool glacial 
conditions and ENSO forcing by precessional orbital variations.

Costs and the Diversification of Exaggerated Animal Structures
Douglas J. Emlen
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/291/5508/1534
Abstract
Sexual selection can favor production of extravagant ornaments and weapons 
in the contest for access to the opposite sex. Existing explanations for 
the diversity of sexually selected structures focus on reproductive 
benefits conferred by particular ornament or weapon morphologies. Here, I 
show that costs of weapon production also may drive patterns of weapon 
evolution. In beetles, production of horns reduces the size of neighboring 
morphological structures (antennae, eyes, or wings, depending on the 
location of the horns), and these tradeoffs reveal unexpected functional 
associations between ecology and horn morphology. This study illustrates a 
critical but overlooked role of costs in sexual selection and has 
implications for understanding the evolution of animal morphology.

PALEOCLIMATE: Enhanced: A Slow Dance for El Nino
Julia Cole
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/291/5508/1496
p. 1496
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
News of the Week
--------------------
PALEOANTHROPOLOGY: Scientists Spar Over Claims of Earliest Human Ancestor
Michael Balter
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/291/5508/1460
Abstract
PARIS--In two papers scheduled for publication in the 28 February issue of 
the Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, researchers claim that a set 
of 6-million-year-old bones unearthed in Kenya last year represents our 
earliest known ancestor. Not only would the find predate other leading 
candidates by some 2 million years; the authors also believe that all 
australopithecines--hominids which include the famous skeleton Lucy, whose 
species is thought to be one of our direct ancestors--should be relegated 
to a side branch in favor of their specimen.

ENDANGERED SPECIES: West's Energy Woes Threaten Salmon Runs
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/291/5508/1470b
p. 1470
--------------------
PAPAL SCIENCE: Science and Religion Advance Together at Pontifical Academy
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/291/5508/1472
p. 1472
PAPAL SCIENCE: Vatican Observatory Takes Long View of Exploring the Heavens
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/291/5508/1473
p. 1473
COMPUTER MODELS: Paleontologists Learn to Shake Up Virtual Bones
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/291/5508/1475
_______________________________________________________________________
Copyright (c) 2001 by the American Association for the Advancement of
Science.

Selección / Selection
Nature 22 February 2001 Volume 409 No. 6823
(c)Copyright 2001 Macmillan Publishers Ltd
=====================================================================
---------------------
letters to Nature
---------------------
Recent mass balance of polar ice sheets inferred from patterns of
global sea-level change
J X MITROVICA, M E TAMISIEA, J L DAVIS & G A MILNE
http://www.nature.com/nlink/v409/n6823/abs/4091026a0_fs.html

Geological constraints on tidal dissipation and dynamical ellipticity
of the Earth over the past three million years
L J LOURENS, R WEHAUSEN & H J BRUMSACK
http://www.nature.com/nlink/v409/n6823/abs/4091029a0_fs.html

brief communications
---------------------
Palaeontology: An Early Cretaceous pellet
J L SANZ, L M CHIAPPE, Y FERNÁDEZ-JALVO, F ORTEGA, B SÁNCHEZ-CHILLÓN,
F J POYATO-ARIZA & B P PÉREZ-MORENO
http://www.nature.com/nlink/v409/n6823/abs/409998b0_fs.html
Abstract
We have discovered a mass of fossil bones from four juvenile birds at Las 
Hoyas in Cuenca, Spain, which show signs of having been digested. To our 
knowledge, this rare finding of an Early Cretaceous fossil of an apparently 
regurgitated pellet provides the first evidence that Mesozoic birds were 
prey animals.

news
---------------------
Climate change offers bleak future

book reviews
---------------------
Earth history: Sediments to planetary motion
M -F LOUTRE