DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Scientists discovered 50,000-year-old viruses in Neanderthal DNA that could help explain their mysterious extinction
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-06 | by ( Jenny Mcgrath | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Researchers studying ancient Neanderthal DNA found traces of three viruses that cause colds, cold sores, genital warts, and cancer. And ancient humans might have been the ones who started spreading these bugs, according to the scientists who recently published their work in the peer-reviewed journal "Viruses." This isn't the first time researchers have found inert (no longer infectious) ancient human viruses. That means tools used to study ancient human DNA might not work for viruses, Sally Wasef, a paleogenetics researcher at Queensland University of Technology, told New Scientist. Massilani also had some concerns with how the researchers were interpreting the ancient DNA.

Persons: —, Marcelo Briones, Chemnitz State Museum of Archaeology Hendrik Schmidt, papillomavirus, Briones, Sasha Tabachnikova, Epstein, Barr, wasn't, Sally Wasef, Massilani Organizations: Service, Business, Chemnitz State Museum of Archaeology, Getty, Yale School of Medicine, Yale, Queensland University of Technology, New Locations: Chemnitz, Chagyrskaya Cave, Southern Siberia, Briones, Siberia

☆ 'Intellectually inferior' humans caused Neanderthals to go extinct, a new book claims
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-15 | by ( Jenny Mcgrath | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

A new book “The Naked Neanderthal” says humans were the main cause thanks to their superior weapons. Compared to early humans, Neanderthals were muscular with a prominent brow and less pronounced chin. Since humans were the final species to occupy the cave, Slimak argues it's because they'd replaced those Neanderthals by wiping them out. Humans' superior weaponsScientists have found relatively few weapons belonging to Neanderthals , Slimak wrote. Yet genes can't tell us much about the nature of these interactions or how closely or amicably humans and Neanderthals lived.

Persons: Ludovic Slimak, —, April Nowell, sapien, “, ”, Slimak, Bill O'Leary, sapiens, they'd, Chemnitz State Museum of Archaeology Hendrik Schmidt, Nowell, haven't, Nikola Solic, ” Nowell, Sapiens Organizations: Service, University of Victoria, Smithsonian Museum, Washington, Getty, Chemnitz State Museum of Archaeology, Reuters Locations: Europe, East, Central Asia, Southern Siberia, Southern France, Chemnitz, France, Spain, Krapina, Croatia

☆ Fossils show ancient long-necked sea beast's 'gruesome' decapitation
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Will Dunham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The researchers studied neck and head remains of two species of Tanystropheus, detecting bite marks and other signs of trauma indicating decapitation. The larger species, the one that ate fish and squid, reached 20 feet (6 meters) long, though this individual was about 13 feet (4 meters). The smaller species was about 5 feet (1.5 meters) long, with teeth indicating a diet of soft-shelled invertebrates like shrimp. Useful in hunting, extreme neck elongation was common among marine reptiles spanning about 175 million years during the age of dinosaurs. Sure, there are other animals with a very long neck, but not a neck that is this long, this stiff and this lightweight, with very long, string-like neck ribs.

Persons: Tanystropheus, Stephan Spiekman, Spiekman, Eudald Mujal, Will Dunham, Rosalba O'Brien Organizations: State Museum of, Museum of, Thomson Locations: Switzerland, San Giorgio, Stuttgart, Germany

☆ Fossils Show How Long-Necked Reptiles Lost Their Heads
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-19 | by ( Asher Elbein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In 1830, Henry De la Beche, an English paleontologist, composed a painting of “Duria Antiquior,” a vision of Mesozoic oceans. When picturing a long-necked marine reptile, he depicted its throat clamped between the jaws of a monstrous Ichthyosaurus. Almost two centuries have passed without direct evidence of the neck biting De la Beche imagined. The structure — which made up half the animal’s body — was constructed from 13 bizarrely elongated and interlocking vertebrae, creating a neck as stiff as a fishing rod. “Getting any insight into how these extreme structures functioned with potential weakness and strengths is very important,” Dr. Spiekman said.

Persons: Henry De la, picturing, Stephan Spiekman, Spiekman Organizations: State Museum of Locations: Stuttgart, Germany

☆ Mummified heads of Māori ancestors returned to New Zealand from Germany
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Lianne Kolirin | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Germany has returned six mummified Māori heads to New Zealand, together with the remains of almost 100 Māori and Moriori ancestors. German institute/Museum of New Zealand Te Papa TongarewaIn Māori culture, the head was considered the most important part of the body. Back in 2016, the Smithsonian Institution returned the remains of 54 indigenous people, including four mummified Māori heads, to Te Papa. The latest repatriation involved the skeletal remains of 95 ancestors of both peoples, together with six mummified tattooed Māori heads. A team carry 20 mummified Māori heads, repatriated from France, during a ceremony at Te Papa on January 27, 2012.

Persons: Hinemoana Baker, Te, Arikirangi Mamaku, Ironside, Reiss Engelhorn, Georg August, Roemer, Te Papa Tongarewa, Marty Melville, —, Arapata, Papa’s Māori, Te Herekiekie, “, Reiss, James Cook, moko, Craig Hawke, ‘, hora, marino, kia whakapapa, tere, ” Organizations: CNN, New Zealand, Smithsonian, New, Smithsonian Institution, Grassi Museum, Linden Museum, Stuttgart State Museum of, Georg August University, Pelizaeus, Museum, Getty, Aotearoa New Locations: Germany, New Zealand, Papa, New, Aotearoa, Chatham, Te Papa, Vienna, Leipzig, Mannheim, Stuttgart, Göttingen, Hildesheim, Museum Wiesbaden, Te, France, AFP, When, Te Papa’s, Aotearoa New Zealand, Engelhorn, Europe, Wellington, Te_Papa

Search resuls for: "State Museum of"

5 mentions found