DNA study sheds new light on the Neolithic Battle Axe Culture

The tiny beetle Triamyxa coprolithica is the first-ever insect to be described from fossil faeces. The animal the researchers have to thank for the excellent preservation was probably the dinosaur ancestor Silesaurus opolensis, which 230 million years ago ingested the small beetle in large numbers.

För första gången har man lyckats få fram hela genomet från de 35 000 år gamla skallbenen från kvinnan Peştera Muierii 1, i Rumänien. Nu har en forskargrupp, ledd av Mattias Jakobsson vid institutionen för organismbiologi, klarlagt hennes kompletta dna.

Plastkemikalien bisfenol F kan framkalla förändringar i en gen som är viktig för neurologisk utveckling. Det har forskare vid Uppsala universitet och Karlstads universitet upptäckt. Mekanismen kan förklara varför exponering för ämnet under fosterstadiet kan kopplas till lägre IQ vid sju års ålder, ett samband samma forskargrupp tidigare sett.

The European Research Council (ERC) has now distributed the grants in its 2020 ERC Advanced Grants call and Uppsala University is one of the recipients. The grant of EUR 2.4 million goes to Per Ahlberg, Professor of Evolutionary Organismal Biology, whose research seeks to reveal more about the origins of land animals by studying the tracks left by our more than 360 million-year-old ancestors – the ‘tetrapods’.

Over 50 millennia, at least five major immigration waves have successively populated the Philippines, the most comprehensive survey of genetic variations in the country to date shows. This Uppsala University study comprises 2.3 million DNA markers from some 1,000 individuals and suggests that climate change may have played a role in the mass movement of populations.

When and how bone marrow first originated in the limbs of early four-legged animals is disputed in evolutionary biology. With the help of powerful X-ray technology, an international research team, led by Uppsala University, has now discovered that this evolutionary adaptation most likely took place after the first tetrapods stepped ashore. The study is published in the scientific journal eLife.

The effects of the endocrine disruptor linuron on frogs are not limited to those exposed, but are passed on to their offspring and grand-offspring. First generation offspring have reduced body weight and decreased fertility, while second generation offspring have increased body weight and a disrupted metabolism. This is demonstrated by a new study conducted by researchers at Uppsala University and Stockholm University that has now been published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

How can stress in animals be measured? Scientists from Uppsala University and elsewhere have now found that what are known as epigenetic biomarkers could be used to detect long-term exposure to stress in commercially raised chickens. This may, in time, lead to improved conditions in animal rearing. The study has been published in the journal Frontiers in Genetics.

Big tidal ranges some 400 million years ago may have initiated the evolution of bony fish and land vertebrates. This theory is now supported by researchers in the UK and at Uppsala University who, for the first time, have used established mathematical models to simulate tides on Earth during this period. The study has been published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A.

A team of scientists led from Uppsala University have described the earliest known example of dentary bone with two rows of cusps on molars and double-rooted teeth. The new findings offer insight into mammal tooth evolution, particularly the development of double-rooted teeth. The results are published in the scientific journal PNAS.

The great long-necked dinosaurs, or sauropods, of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods were the largest animals ever to live on land. In a paper published in Current Biology, an international team of researchers including members from Uppsala University use cutting-edge imaging technology to give us a unique glimpse of the very beginning of a sauropod life: the face of an unhatched young inside an egg.

Ett internationellt forskarteam har kartlagt genomet hos tuataran, en sällsynt reptil som endast finns på Nya Zeeland. Arten, som också kallas bryggödla på svenska, bildade en egen evolutionär gren redan för 250 miljoner år sedan. I den nya studien har forskarna bland annat kunnat se att tuataran har fler gener som skyddar mot åldersrelaterade skador än något annat undersökt ryggradsdjur. Forskningen publiceras i tidskriften Nature.

Vilken sorts utbyte hade stenålderns olika kulturer med varandra? I en ny tvärvetenskaplig studie har forskare kombinerat arkeologisk och genetisk information för att bättre förstå kulturella influenser från stridsyxekultur som påträffats i gravar från den så kallade gropkeramiska kulturen. Resultaten publiceras i den vetenskapliga tidskriften American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

Forskare vid Uppsala universitet har, tillsammans med kollegor i Israel, lyckats utvinna DNA ur de över 2 000 år gamla Dödahavsrullarna. Informationen om djuren vars skinn använts till pergament gör det möjligt för historiker att dra slutsatser om vilka textfragment som hör ihop men också om hur pass representativa texterna verkligen är för judendomen vid den här tiden.

Sharks have roamed the earth’s oceans for around 450 million years. Although they survived the catastrophic extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs, that event did alter the balance between two important shark groups. In his degree project, Mohamad Bazzi investigates which types of shark have been most successful during different periods.

On March 5 - 7, Uppsala University and SLU hosts the science festival Scifest at Fyrishov. Many scientists from the Department of Organismal Biology will be there. 

Carina Schlebusch, Terje Falck-Ytter och Haining Tian vid Uppsala universitet har utsetts till Wallenberg Academy Fellows. Utnämningen kommer med ett femårigt anslag som ska främja långsiktighet i forskningen.

Per Ahlberg, professor inom evolution och utvecklingsbiologi vid institutionen för organismbiologi och Lars Holmer, professor i historisk geologi och paleontologi vid institutionen för geovetenskaper har utsetts till 2019 års mottagare av Björkénska priset – ett av Uppsala universitets största vetenskapliga pris för framstående forskning.

Uppsala universitets Oscarspris till yngre forskare har tilldelats Yaffa Epstein vid juridiska institutionen och Grzegorz Niedzwiedzki vid institutionen för organismbiologi.

Superbly preserved fossils from Russia, excavated with support of a grant from the National Geographic Society and described today by an international team in the leading scientific journal Nature, cast new and surprising light on one of the earliest tetrapods – the group of animals that made the evolutionary transition from water to land and ultimately became the ancestors not just of amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, but of ourselves.

In an interdisciplinary study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, an international research team has combined archaeological, genetic and stable isotope data to understand the demographic processes associated with the iconic Battle Axe Culture and its introduction in Scandinavia.

Modern flamingoes employ filter feeding and their feces are, as a result, rich in remains of microscopically-small aquatic prey. Very similar contents are described from more than 150 million year old pterosaur droppings in a recent paper in PeerJ. This represents the first direct evidence of filter-feeding in Late Jurassic pterosaurs and demonstrates that their diet and feeding environment were similar to those of modern flamingoes.

Long-lived mushrooms that grow in ‘fairy rings’ accumulate surprisingly few mutations over time. This finding indicates that their protection against harmful mutations is well developed. The results, to be published in the esteemed journal Current Biology, are interesting in terms of both medicine and evolutionary biology.

I maj åkte Inga Hedberg tillbaka till Addis Abeba för att hedras för sitt arbete med Flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea som färdigställdes för tio år sedan. En flora i 8 volymer som nog inte hade blivit av utan Inga och Olle Hedberg.

In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an international research team, led from Uppsala University, discovered kin relationships among Stone Age individuals buried in megalithic tombs on Ireland and in Sweden. The kin relations can be traced for more than ten generations and suggests that megaliths were graves for kindred groups in Stone Age northwestern Europe.

Coprolites, or fossil droppings, of the dinosaur-like archosaur Smok wawelski contain lots of chewed-up bone fragments. This led researchers at Uppsala University to conclude that this top predator was exploiting bones for salt and marrow, a behavior often linked to mammals but seldom to archosaurs.

International research team uses genome sequencing to show that a lichen can contain up to three different fungi.

During the Triassic period (252–201 million years ago) mammal-like reptiles called therapsids co-existed with ancestors to dinosaurs, crocodiles, mammals, pterosaurs, turtles, frogs, and lizards. One group of therapsids are the dicynodonts. Researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden, together with colleagues in Poland, have discovered fossils from a new genus of gigantic dicynodont. The new species is described in the journal Science.

Efter sju år av vetenskapliga undersökningar kan forskare konstatera att en ny art av dinofågeln Archaeopteryx har hittats, Archaeopteryx albersdoerferi. Flera forskare från Uppsala universitet är delaktiga i studien, vars resultat visar att den nya arten är ungefär 400 000 år yngre än de andra Archaeopteryx som tidigare har påträffats.

Selfish genes are genes that are passed on to the next generation but confer no advantage on the individual as a whole, and may sometimes be harmful. Researchers at Uppsala University have, for the first time, sequenced (or charted) two selfish genes in the fungus Neurospora intermedia that cause fungal spores to kill their siblings. Unexpectedly, the genes were not related to each other, perhaps indicating that selfish genes are more common than previously thought.

A study that examined the shape of hundreds of fossilized shark teeth suggests that modern shark biodiversity was triggered by the end-Cretaceous mass extinction event, about 66 million years ago.

First global survey of soil genomics reveals a war between fungi and bacteria.

In a new study, researchers from Sweden and Britain have investigated how the endocrine-disrupting substance linuron affects reproduction in the West African clawed frog, Xenopus tropicalis. The scientists found that linuron, which is used as a pesticicide, impaired the males' fertility, and that tadpoles developed ovaries instead of testicles to a greater extent, which caused a female?biased sex ratio. The results are published in the journal Scientific Reports.