The ecology of early man in southern Africa

It is not possible at present to demonstrate hominid occupation of southern Africa prior to the middle or late Pliocene, perhaps 3 million years ago. It may be the case that much, if not most, of the subcontinent was in fact uninhabited before that. The earliest hominid known to have lived in southern Africa is Australopithecus africanus. It was apparently replaced by Homo (?evolved into Homo) by 2 million years ago, at approximately the same time as A. robustus is first recorded locally. Homo and A. robustus then coexisted until perhaps 1 million years ago, after which Homo survived alone. There is no solid evidence that either of the southern African australopithecines made tools or accumulated bones. In fact, at the known sites, it now seems more likely that the bones, including those of the australopithecines themselves, were accumulated by carnivores. The known archeological record of southern Africa begins 2 million to 1.5 million years ago and the oldest stone tools may belong to the Oldowan Industry. Far better documentation exists for the succeeding Acheulean Industrial Complex, which was present in southern Africa almost certainly before 1 million years ago and persisted with modifications probably until sometime between 300,000 and 130,000 years ago. Although it is known that Acheulean peoples made handaxes, cleavers, and other stone tools, very little else is known about the activities of Acheuleans in southern Africa. Far more is known about their Middle and Later Stone Age successors. Southern African MSA peoples were perhaps among the earliest anywhere to take systematic advantage of aquatic resources for their subsistence, although they apparently did so far less effectively than did the LSA peoples who followed them. There are also contrasts between the ways in which MSA and LSA peoples dealt with terrestrial prey and between the contents of MSA and LSA artifact assemblages. The LSA peoples, for example, seem to have made much more extensive use of bone as a raw material, and they were the first to manufacture articles that are clearly interpretable as ornaments or art objects. From an evolutionary perspective, the LSA may represent a quantum advance over the MSA, perhaps correlated with the replacement of an archaic human physical type by the modem one. However, this must remain only a working hypothesis until much more is learned about the earliest LSA, dating to 35,000 to 40,000 years ago or more, and until there are adequate samples of well-provenienced MSA and early LSA physical remains. The later LSA, postdating 20,000 to 18,000 years ago, is reasonably well known. Later LSA peoples were probably at least partly responsible for the extinction of several large mammals in southern Africa about 10,000 years ago. By that date or shortly thereafter, at least some LSA peoples established basic hunting-gathering adaptations, which continued until the introduction and spread of agriculture and pastoralism, beginning roughly 2000 years ago. Thereafter, hunters and gatherers became progressively restricted in numbers and distribution, such that today only a very few exist, restricted to some of the most marginal environments of the subcontinent. It remains a major goal of southern African archeology to shed more light on the evolution and operation of hunting-gathering cultures during the vast time span when they covered all of southern Africa.     

Alga-like fossils from the early precambrian of South Africa

Micropaleontological studies of carbonaceouis chert from the Fig Tree Series of South Africa (> 3.1 x 10(9) years old) revealed the presence of spheroidal microfossils, here designated Archaeosphaeroides barbertonensis, interpreted as probably representing the remnants of unicellular alga-like organisms. The presumed photosynthetic nature of these primitive microorganisms seems corroborated by organic geochemical and carbon isotopic studies of the Fig Tree organic matter, and is consistent with the geologically and mineralogically indicated Early Precambrian environment. These alga-like spheroids, together with a bacterium-like organism previously described from the Fig Tree chert, are the oldest fossil orgisms now known.     

我国开征遗产税的若干问题探讨

世界上有100多个国家和地区开征了遗产税和赠与税,目前我国尚未开征。介绍了遗产税的起源和发展史,阐述了我国当前开征遗产税的意义及遗产税征收的主要模式。通过分析目前我国开征遗产税存在的现实问题,探讨了我国遗产税制建设的措施。     

玉米SC704线粒体DNA与不育关系的研究

本研究通过对玉米SC704不育系及保持系的线粒体DNA限制性核酸内切酶(EcoRI.BamHI.HindⅢ)消化分析,确证了玉米SC704的不育胞质为C型不育型。酶消化分析表明,其不育系和保持系线粒体DNA在结构上存有变展。作者认为:在不育系的选育过程中多代核置换产生的雄性不育,由于新核育性等位基因的缺失,破坏了原来的核质平衡,引起线粒体DNA的重排,并产生不同的变异类型,这种变异可能破坏了细胞核及线粒体之间的固有平衡,从而导致细胞质雄性不育性的形成。     

rDNA和mtDNA在昆虫系统发育与区系研究中的应用

核酸序列分析技术在昆虫系统发育与区系研究中的应用较为广泛。根据近期国内外的研究,详述核糖体DNA(rDNA)序列,线粒体DNA(mtDNA)序列以及其他较保守基因序列在昆虫系统发育与区系研究中的应用。     

Natural streams and the legacy of water-powered mills

Gravel-bedded streams are thought to have a characteristic meandering form bordered by a self-formed, fine-grained floodplain. This ideal guides a multibillion-dollar stream restoration industry. We have mapped and dated many of the deposits along mid-Atlantic streams that formed the basis for this widely accepted model. These data, as well as historical maps and records, show instead that before European settlement, the streams were small anabranching channels within extensive vegetated wetlands that accumulated little sediment but stored substantial organic carbon. Subsequently, 1 to 5 meters of slackwater sedimentation, behind tens of thousands of 17th- to 19th-century milldams, buried the presettlement wetlands with fine sediment. These findings show that most floodplains along mid-Atlantic streams are actually fill terraces, and historically incised channels are not natural archetypes for meandering streams.     

6种鱼mtDNA D-loop及其邻近区段的序列比较分析

采用PCR技术对乌克兰鳞鲤Cyprinus carpio、鲫Carassis auratus、鲢Hypophthalmichthys molitrix、鳙Aritichthys nobilis、草鱼Ctenopharyngodon idellus和乌苏里拟鲿Pseudobagrus ussuriensis共28个个体(分属于天津市动植物抗性重点实验室应用PCR-RFLP方法已检测出的不同单倍型)的mtDNA D-loop及其邻近区段进行扩增并测序,获得了大小为1 500～1 800 bp的扩增产物.用Clustal 1.83软件与GenBank中的鲤、金鱼、鲢、草鱼、长吻鮠5种鱼的mtDNA全序列进行排序比较,确定扩增产物包含完整的tRNAPm、Dloop、tRNAPhe序列以及12S rRNA长度约为400 bp的部分序列.将6种鱼共28个样本的序列提交GenBank后获得序列号为KC292921～ KC292948.运用Mega 4.0软件计算出6种鱼的碱基组成和碱基差异,基于Kimura双参数模型计算种间的遗传距离,并与GenBank中5种鱼的mtDNA序列一起构建NJ系统树.序列结构分析表明,在6种鱼序列的4个区段中,D-loop区段在种内、种间的差异性均高于另外3个区段.6种鱼NJ系统树的结果与传统分类方法一致,可为鱼类分类以及种类鉴定提供科学依据.另外,6种鱼各种单倍型均在所测得序列中找到相应的酶切位点,印证了RFLP实验结果,在酶切位点以外也发现了同种鱼的不同单倍型间存在碱基差异.     

The southern route "out of Africa": evidence for an early expansion of modern humans into Arabia

The timing of the dispersal of anatomically modern humans (AMH) out of Africa is a fundamental question in human evolutionary studies. Existing data suggest a rapid coastal exodus via the Indian Ocean rim around 60,000 years ago. We present evidence from Jebel Faya, United Arab Emirates, demonstrating human presence in eastern Arabia during the last interglacial. The tool kit found at Jebel Faya has affinities to the late Middle Stone Age in northeast Africa, indicating that technological innovation was not necessary to facilitate migration into Arabia. Instead, we propose that low eustatic sea level and increased rainfall during the transition between marine isotope stages 6 and 5 allowed humans to populate Arabia. This evidence implies that AMH may have been present in South Asia before the Toba eruption.     

6种鱼mtDNA D-loop及其邻近区段的序列比较分析

采用PCR技术对乌克兰鳞鲤Cyprinus carpio、鲫Carassis auratus、鲢Hypophthalmichthys molitrix、鳙Aristichthys nobilis、草鱼Ctenopharyngodon idellus和乌苏里拟鲿Pseudobagrus ussuriensis共28个个体(分属于天津市动植物抗性重点实验室应用PCR-RFLP方法已检测出的不同单倍型)的mtDNA D-loop及其邻近区段进行扩增并测序,获得了大小为1 500～1 800 bp的扩增产物。用Clustal 1.83软件与GenBank中的鲤、金鱼、鲢、草鱼、长吻鮠5种鱼的mtDNA全序列进行排序比较,确定扩增产物包含完整的tRNAPro、D-loop、tRNAPhe序列以及12S rRNA长度约为400 bp的部分序列。将6种鱼共28个样本的序列提交GenBank后获得序列号为KC292921～KC292948。运用Mega 4.0软件计算出6种鱼的碱基组成和碱基差异,基于Kimura双参数模型计算种间的遗传距离,并与GenBank中5种鱼的mtDNA序列一起构建NJ系统树。序列结构分析表明,在6种鱼序列的4个区段中,D-loop区段在种内、种间的差异性均高于另外3个区段。6种鱼NJ系统树的结果与传统分类方法一致,可为鱼类分类以及种类鉴定提供科学依据。另外,6种鱼各种单倍型均在所测得序列中找到相应的酶切位点,印证了RFLP实验结果,在酶切位点以外也发现了同种鱼的不同单倍型间存在碱基差异。     

线粒体DNA在昆虫系统学研究中的应用

综述了 mt DNA的组成和各部分的进化特点 ,以及它们用于昆虫系统学研究的优点。mt DNA进化快的 CO ～ CO 、ND5和 A+T- rich区部分适合亲缘关系较近类群的系统学研究 ,进化慢的 12 s r DNA、16 s r D-NA和 ND1、ND2部分适合亲缘关系较远类群的系统学研究。并对 m t DNA在昆虫系统学研究中的应用前景作了展望 ,提出了存在的问题     

非洲鸵鸟生长规律研究

根据Logistic生长曲线方程原理确定了非洲鸵鸟生长曲线方程参数a=29.0992,b=0.4977,并对方程进行了拟合,建立了非洲鸵鸟生长曲线方程^y=K/(1 29.0992e3/0.4977x)(ry′x=3/0.9918,P<0.001)。估测出非洲鸵鸟生长终极体重为108.69kg,达到最大体重的时间为204.49 d。为今后非洲鸵鸟在我国开展选育和科学饲养、适时出栏屠宰提供了一定依据。