Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00032-9 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Concomitant formation of protocells and prebiotic compounds under a plausible early Earth atmosphere.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
January 2025
Laboratory of Crystallographic Studies, Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científica, Armilla 18100, Spain.
Revealing the origin of life and unambiguously detecting fossil remains of the earliest organisms are closely related aspects of the same scientific research. The synthesis of prebiotic molecular building blocks of life and the first compartmentalization into protocells have been considered two events apart in time, space, or both. We conducted lightning experiments in borosilicate reactors filled with a mixture of gases mimicking plausible geochemical conditions of early Earth.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPreservation and early evolution of scalidophoran ventral nerve cord.
Sci Adv
January 2025
State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life & Environments and Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi'an, China.
Ecdysozoan worms (Nematoida + Scalidophora) are typified by disparate grades of neural organization reflecting a complex evolutionary history. The fossil record offers a unique opportunity to reconstruct the early character evolution of the nervous system via the exceptional preservation of extinct representatives. We focus on their nervous system as it appears in early and mid-Cambrian fossils.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHidden population turnover of small odontocetes in the northwestern North Pacific during the Holocene.
Biol Lett
January 2025
Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8601, Japan.
Despite numerous studies on the rise and fall of terrestrial megafauna in the late Quaternary, knowledge about marine megafauna from this period remains limited. In this study, we performed radiocarbon dating and partial mitochondrial DNA sequencing from the skeletal remains of three species of small odontocetes (Pacific white-sided dolphins, Dall's porpoises and harbour porpoises) excavated from prehistoric archaeological sites around the Japanese shore dating back to 8500-1000 years ago (ya). Pacific white-sided dolphins that habituated the eastern coast of Hokkaido around 2000 ya belonged to different maternal groups than those from over 5000 ya and today.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdaptive responses in Cambrian predator and prey highlight the arms race during the rise of animals.
Curr Biol
December 2024
Palaeoscience Research Centre, School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia.
Predation is an important driver of species-level change in modern and fossil ecosystems, often through selection for defensive phenotypes in prey responding to predation pressures over time. Records of changes in shell morphology and injury patterns in biomineralized taxa are ideal for demonstrating such adaptive responses. The rapid increase in diversity and abundance of biomineralizing organisms during the early Cambrian is often attributed to predation and an evolutionary arms race.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEarly-middle Permian Mediterranean gorgonopsian suggests an equatorial origin of therapsids.
Nat Commun
December 2024
Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP-CERCA), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICTA-ICP, c/ Columnes s/n, Campus de la UAB, 08193, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain.
Article Synopsis
- Therapsids were key players in ancient ecosystems and evolved into mammals during the early Mesozoic, but their origins are not well understood.
- A newly discovered partial skeleton of a gorgonopsian from Mallorca is possibly the oldest known therapsid, dating back to the lower-middle Permian period.
- Using advanced dating methods, researchers created a timeline showing that therapsids diversified rapidly after Olson's Extinction, suggesting they emerged in tropical Pangaea's wet biome rather than in cooler regions.
Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!