Late Mousterian persistence near the Arctic Circle

Palaeolithic sites in Russian high latitudes have been considered as Upper Palaeolithic and thus representing an Arctic expansion of modern humans. Here we show that at Byzovaya, in the western foothills of the Polar Urals, the technological structure of the lithic assemblage makes it directly comparable with Mousterian Middle Palaeolithic industries that so far have been exclusively attributed to the Neandertal populations in Europe. Radiocarbon and optical-stimulated luminescence dates on bones and sand grains indicate that the site was occupied during a short period around 28,500 carbon-14 years before the present (about 31,000 to 34,000 calendar years ago), at the time when only Upper Palaeolithic cultures occupied lower latitudes of Eurasia. Byzovaya may thus represent a late northern refuge for Neandertals, about 1000 km north of earlier known Mousterian sites.     

The primitive wrist of Homo floresiensis and its implications for hominin evolution

Whether the Late Pleistocene hominin fossils from Flores, Indonesia, represent a new species, Homo floresiensis, or pathological modern humans has been debated. Analysis of three wrist bones from the holotype specimen (LB1) shows that it retains wrist morphology that is primitive for the African ape-human clade. In contrast, Neandertals and modern humans share derived wrist morphology that forms during embryogenesis, which diminishes the probability that pathology could result in the normal primitive state. This evidence indicates that LB1 is not a modern human with an undiagnosed pathology or growth defect; rather, it represents a species descended from a hominin ancestor that branched off before the origin of the clade that includes modern humans, Neandertals, and their last common ancestor.     

Comment on "Calcareous nannoplankton response to surface-water acidification around Oceanic Anoxic Event 1a"

Erba et al. (Reports, 23 July 2010, p. 428) attributed calcareous nannofossil morphology and assemblage changes across Cretaceous Oceanic Anoxic Event 1a to the effects of surface ocean acidification. We argue that the quality of carbonate preservation in these sequences, the unsupported assumptions of the biotic response to acidity, and the absence of independent proxy estimates for ocean pH or atmospheric pCO(2) render this conclusion questionable.     

Tenfold population increase in Western Europe at the Neandertal-to-modern human transition

European Neandertals were replaced by modern human populations from Africa ~40,000 years ago. Archaeological evidence from the best-documented region of Europe shows that during this replacement human populations increased by one order of magnitude, suggesting that numerical supremacy alone may have been a critical factor in facilitating this replacement.     

Diversity of planktonic foraminifera in deep-sea sediments

The diversity of a planktonic foraminiferal assemblage on the ocean floor depends on the state of preservation of that assemblage. As dissolution progresses, species diversity (number of species in the assemblage) decreases, but compound diversity (based on relative species abundance) first increases and then decreases; species dominance first decreases and then increases. The reason for these changes is that the species most susceptible to solution deliver moresediment to the ocean floor than do species with solution-resistant shells, possibly because the more soluble tests are produced in surface waters, where growth and production are greatest.     

The shaping of modern human immune systems by multiregional admixture with archaic humans

Whole genome comparisons identified introgression from archaic to modern humans. Our analysis of highly polymorphic human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I, vital immune system components subject to strong balancing selection, shows how modern humans acquired the HLA-B*73 allele in west Asia through admixture with archaic humans called Denisovans, a likely sister group to the Neandertals. Virtual genotyping of Denisovan and Neandertal genomes identified archaic HLA haplotypes carrying functionally distinctive alleles that have introgressed into modern Eurasian and Oceanian populations. These alleles, of which several encode unique or strong ligands for natural killer cell receptors, now represent more than half the HLA alleles of modern Eurasians and also appear to have been later introduced into Africans. Thus, adaptive introgression of archaic alleles has significantly shaped modern human immune systems.     

Jadeite: shock-induced formation from oligoclase, ries crater, Germany

Jadeite (high-pressure sodium aluminum pyroxene) has been identified in a shock-phase assemblage of oligoclase. The shock assemblage consists of minute particles with high refractive indices that contain at least two phases: one (identified by x-ray) is a jadeite that is nearly pure NaAlSi(2)O(6); the other has the chemical composition of oligoclase minus jadeite and appears to be largely amorphous.     

Association reaction in forsterite under shock compression

Transmission electron microscopic observation of forsterite (Mg(2)SiO(4)) shocked to peak pressures of 78 to 92 gigapascals revealed that forsterite breaks down to an assemblage of MgO plus MgSiO(3) glass. This strongly supports the interpretation that the high-pressure phase of forsterite under shock compression is due to the assemblage of MgSiO(3) perovskite plus MgO.     

The Avalon explosion: evolution of Ediacara morphospace

Ediacara fossils [575 to 542 million years ago (Ma)] represent Earth's oldest known complex macroscopic life forms, but their morphological history is poorly understood. A comprehensive quantitative analysis of these fossils indicates that the oldest Ediacara assemblage-the Avalon assemblage (575 to 565 Ma)-already encompassed the full range of Ediacara morphospace. A comparable morphospace range was occupied by the subsequent White Sea (560 to 550 Ma) and Nama (550 to 542 Ma) assemblages, although it was populated differently. In contrast, taxonomic richness increased in the White Sea assemblage and declined in the Nama assemblage. These diversity changes, occurring while morphospace range remained relatively constant, led to inverse shifts in morphological variance. The Avalon morphospace expansion mirrors the Cambrian explosion, and both events may reflect similar underlying mechanisms.     

The Buttermilk Creek complex and the origins of Clovis at the Debra L. Friedkin site, Texas

Compelling archaeological evidence of an occupation older than Clovis (~12.8 to 13.1 thousand years ago) in North America is present at only a few sites, and the stone tool assemblages from these sites are small and varied. The Debra L. Friedkin site, Texas, contains an assemblage of 15,528 artifacts that define the Buttermilk Creek Complex, which stratigraphically underlies a Clovis assemblage and dates between ~13.2 and 15.5 thousand years ago. The Buttermilk Creek Complex confirms the emerging view that people occupied the Americas before Clovis and provides a large artifact assemblage to explore Clovis origins.     

U-series dating of Paleolithic art in 11 caves in Spain

Paleolithic cave art is an exceptional archive of early human symbolic behavior, but because obtaining reliable dates has been difficult, its chronology is still poorly understood after more than a century of study. We present uranium-series disequilibrium dates of calcite deposits overlying or underlying art found in 11 caves, including the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage sites of Altamira, El Castillo, and Tito Bustillo, Spain. The results demonstrate that the tradition of decorating caves extends back at least to the Early Aurignacian period, with minimum ages of 40.8 thousand years for a red disk, 37.3 thousand years for a hand stencil, and 35.6 thousand years for a claviform-like symbol. These minimum ages reveal either that cave art was a part of the cultural repertoire of the first anatomically modern humans in Europe or that perhaps Neandertals also engaged in painting caves.     

池塘生态系基质C/N比对游离细菌群落生长和有机N矿化作用的影响

本文研究了向高产鱼池中人工添加有机C（葡萄糖）和有机N（甘氨酸）对水中游离细菌生长及其分解矿化有机N的影响。研究结果表明，向池塘水中添加有机C促进了细菌生长和细菌对N素的吸收；而添加有机N对细菌生长的影响不明显，但增强了有机N的矿化作用。在池塘水营养条件下，溶解有机C限制了细菌的生长，细菌在鱼池生态系统N循环中起着有机N分解者的作用。     

Evidence for extreme climatic warmth from late cretaceous arctic vertebrates

A Late Cretaceous (92 to 86 million years ago) vertebrate assemblage from the high Canadian Arctic (Axel Heiberg Island) implies that polar climates were warm (mean annual temperature exceeding 14 degreesC) rather than near freezing. The assemblage includes large (2.4 meters long) champsosaurs, which are extinct crocodilelike reptiles. Magmatism at six large igneous provinces at this time suggests that volcanic carbon dioxide emissions helped cause the global warmth.     

四川部分地区断奶前犊牛贾第虫感染调查和基因分型研究

为调查四川部分地区断奶前犊牛贾第虫感染和基因亚型分布情况,采集了278份断奶前犊牛(1月龄以下)新鲜粪便,采用饱和蔗糖漂浮法处理样品并提取DNA,经巢式PCR扩增β-giaidin(bg)、tpi和gdh基因,对阳性样品贾第虫基因型进行鉴定。结果显示,四川部分地区断奶前犊牛贾第虫总感染率为9.35%(26/278)。bg、tpi和gdh基因序列分析表明,本次分离的贾第虫种类均为集聚体E。多位点基因序列和进化树分析显示,基于bg、tpi和gdh三个基因位点均分别鉴定出7种亚型,分别发现3、2、2种新基因亚型(bg: E13、E14、E16;tpi: E21、E24;gdh: E18、E19)。本研究表明,四川地区断奶前犊牛存在贾第虫感染,虫种类型主要为集聚体E,同时该型在四川地区遗传多样性较高。     

通过种群互作阐释森林群落多样性格局

生态位理论、中性理论和近中性理论等都倾向于从群落水平上解释群落构建。目前利用种群互作和种群动 态理论解释群落生态学现象的理论基础仍旧十分薄弱。建立种群生态与群落生态联系,推动种群生态和群落生态 学理论相互融合,必将大大促进群落构建理论的快速发展。本文简单回顾了生态位理论和中性理论等群落构建理 论,重点梳理了建立在种群动态和种群互作基础上的群落构建研究进展。种群动态过程包括出生、死亡、迁入和迁 出,在基本种群动态过程基础上,物种相对多度分布可用Dirichlet 分布模型和中性模型进行描述。ISAR(individual species-area relationships)模型建立在种-面积关系和Ripley K 函数基础上,实现了从植物个体冶角度描述一个物种 周围不同尺度上相邻物种的丰富度状况。非对称竞争在植物群落邻体关系中普遍存在,描述了资源在竞争植物之 间进行的不平等分配。结合ISAR 模型和非对称竞争现象,从种群互作角度阐述了邻域多样性冶格局构建的相关 评价方法和理论。      

Human evolution out of Africa: the role of refugia and climate change

Although an African origin of the modern human species is generally accepted, the evolutionary processes involved in the speciation, geographical spread, and eventual extinction of archaic humans outside of Africa are much debated. An additional complexity has been the recent evidence of limited interbreeding between modern humans and the Neandertals and Denisovans. Modern human migrations and interactions began during the buildup to the Last Glacial Maximum, starting about 100,000 years ago. By examining the history of other organisms through glacial cycles, valuable models for evolutionary biogeography can be formulated. According to one such model, the adoption of a new refugium by a subgroup of a species may lead to important evolutionary changes.     

罗布泊“大耳朵”地区L07-10剖面沉积特征及其环境指示意义

对罗布泊“大耳朵”地区L07-10剖面进行沉积学观察,结合盐分、沉积物14C测年等分析,结果表明,L07-10剖面自上而下主要有3个层次：盐壳层、泥盐混合层、淤泥层。整个剖面不同年份,不同层次盐分变化存在一定规律性,结合剖面沉积学特征,其对罗布泊的演化具有可能的指示意义。反映了罗布泊在发展演化过程中,主要经历了淡水湖-盐湖-干盐湖的发展阶段,指示区域气候持续干旱化的特点,但在气候总体干旱的背景下,出现多次气候干湿波动变化。罗布泊的演化主要经历了淡水湖-盐湖-干盐湖三个发展阶段。     

Scatological origin of microvertebrate fossil accumulations

Small-mammal bone found in Recent carnivore droppings (scat) is identical in appearance with that in many Mesozoic and Tertiary microvertebrate fossil collections. Such fossil specimens passed into or through the digestive tracts of carnivores before being left as scat that was later reworked into sedimentary rocks. The term "coprocoenosis" is proposed for such an assemblage. Caution is urged in drawing conclusions about the composition of paleocommunities because carnivores can catch prey representing several different communities and leave a mixed assemblage in a particular depositional environment.     

Strontium isotopes in deep-sea sediments

Recent deep-sea sediments, leached of carbonate, have Sr(87) Sr(86) ratios ranging from 0.7044 to 0.7394. Strontium in the detrital sediment has not equilibrated isotopically with seawater strontium. Amounts of strontium-bearing authigenic material in the clay-mineral assemblage are not great enough to mask strontium-isotope ratios inherited from source areas.     

一套研究水稻抗瘟性材料体系的建立和应用

 以中国华南地区曾普遍使用的抗瘟性水稻材料外选 35、目前广东省水稻生产上种植面积最大的具有水平抗瘟性和高收获指数特点的水稻品种粤香占和广东最早的优质食味好的品种七丝占为亲本材料 ,通过杂交后代单粒传递方法和DNA杂交方法 ,创造了一套对抗瘟性基因及抗性机理和优质等农艺性状研究具有重要价值的材料体系 ,分别为重组自交系群体 (recombinationinbredline ,RIL)、扩展重组自交系群体 (expendrecombinationinbredline ,ERIL)和突变体重组自交系群体 (transfered mutantrecombinationinbredline,TRIL)。在RIL群体中 ,鉴定出该材料体系中对鉴定稻瘟病菌株的各种抗性基因组合材料 ,为“基因对基因学说”提供了直接的材料证据。用同一对照和同样方法 ,在ERIL群体中 ,肯定了表现水平抗性的粤香占具有多个主效抗性基因和多个微效抗性基因 ,为水平抗性的多基因控制提供了初步证据。还创造出了一套可用于研究水平抗性的稳定材料群体。用野生稻外源DNA电激导入方法获得粤香占水平抗性突变为垂直抗性的突变株 ,并从简单重复序列多态性 (SSLP)方面 ,证明了突变体群体的变异情况。这些研究和材料体系为抗瘟性机理研究、基因克隆、抗性基因尤其是水平抗性基因研究提供了重要的新材料