Ancient DNA Elucidates Basque Origins

Researchers find that the people of northern Spain and southern France are an amalgam of early Iberian farmers and local hunters.

By Bob Grant

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/43950/title/Ancient-DNA-Elucidates-Basque-Origins/ 

Is the fog lifting on mysterious Basque 

origins?WIKIMEDIA, RUSSAVIA

The mysterious origins of the Basque people of northern Spain and southern France have become a little clearer thanks to DNA extracted from centuries-old human remains unearthed in a Spanish cave. Nearly 700,000 Basques, who speak a globally unique language and retain genetic patterns that distinguish them from other Europeans, seem to be descendants of Neolithic farmers who mixed with local hunters before becoming genetically isolated from the rest of Europe for millennia.


Researchers led by population geneticist Mattias Jakobsson from Uppsala University in Sweden analyzed DNA from eight skeletons pulled out of El Portalón cave in the Basque country of northern Spain. The team compared the genomes extracted from the remains, dated to between 3,500 and 5,500 years old, to modern European genomes and more than 12 ancient genomes from 5,000- to 8,000-year-old skeletons from Western and Central Europe. The El Portalón skeletons retained genetic traces that tied them more closely to modern-day Basques than any other European. Jakobsson and his coauthors reported their results yesterday (September 8) in PNAS.


The researchers suggested that early Basques likely sheltered from waves of European migration that began about 5,000 years ago. “It’s hard to speculate, but we’ve been working with Basque historians and it’s clear from the historical record that this area was very difficult to conquer,” Jakobsson told BBC News.

The findings contradict earlier models, which suggested Basque people were genetically distinct from other Europeans because they represented a relic population of ancient hunter-gatherers. If that were true, modern Basques would have genetic signatures that were more similar to ancient DNA recovered from hunter-gatherers rather than to the El Portalón remains. “We can finally set aside this old story,” Jakobsson told Science.
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Ancient genomes link early farmers to Basques

 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150907190628.htm?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

Date:

September 7, 2015

Source:

Uppsala University

Summary:

A surprising discovery from the genomes of eight Iberian Stone-Age farmer remains has been reported. The analyses revealed that early Iberian farmers are the closest ancestors to modern-day Basques, in contrast previous hypotheses that linked Basques to earlier pre-farming groups.

 

The burial was found deliberately sheltered by large limestone blocks and three other blocks carefully protected the child´s head. The grave was scattered with grave goods suggesting a special status of this boy. The burial is covered by different ornaments, such as ceramics fragments of different sizes sealed with a green-like clay, vessel parts, flint flakes, a bone arrowhead, quartzite and, most surprisingly, the boy was left accompanied by an almost complete calf in anatomical position. This child possibly died of malnutrition as evidenced by a series of lesions in his skull and bones indicating the boy suffered from rickets and/or scurvy (Castilla et al, 2014) at different stages of his life.

Credit: Eneko Iriarte

 

 

An international team led by researchers at Uppsala University reports a surprising discovery from the genomes of eight Iberian Stone-Age farmer remains. The analyses revealed that early Iberian farmers are the closest ancestors to modern-day Basques, in contrast previous hypotheses that linked Basques to earlier pre-farming groups.

The team could also demonstrate that farming was brought to Iberia by the same/similar groups that migrated to northern and central Europe and that the incoming farmers admixed with local, Iberian hunter-gather groups, a process that continued for at least 2 millennia.

The study is published ahead of print in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS.

Most of the previous studies about the transition from small and mobile hunter-gatherer groups to larger and sedentary farming populations have focused on central and northern Europe, however much less in known about how this major event unfolded in Iberia. This time, the research team investigated eight individuals associated with archaeological remains from farming cultures in the El Portalón cave from the well-known Anthropological site Atapuerca in northern Spain.

"The El Portalon cave is a fantastic site with amazing preservation of artefact material," says Dr. Cristina Valdiosera of Uppsala University and La Trobe University, one of the lead authors.
"Every year we find human and animal bones and artifacts, including stone tools, ceramics, bone artefacts and metal objects, it is like a detailed book of the last 10,000 years, providing a wonderful understanding of this period. The preservation of organic remains is great and this has enabled us to study the genetic material complementing the archaeology," Dr. Cristina Valdiosera continues.

From these individuals who lived 3,500-5,500 years ago, the authors generated the first genome-wide sequence data from Iberian ancient farmers and observed that these share a similar story to those of central and northern Europe. That is, they originate from a southern wave of expansion, and also admixed with local hunter-gatherer populations and spread agricultural practices through population expansions. The authors noticed that although they share these similarities with other European farmers, this early Iberian population has its own particularities.

"We show that the hunter-gatherer genetic component increases with time during several millennia, which means that later farmers were genetically more similar to hunter-gatherers than their forefathers who brought farming to Europe," says Dr. Torsten Günther of Uppsala University and one of the lead authors.

"We also see that different farmers mixed with different hunter-gatherer groups across Europe, for example, Iberian farmers mixed with Iberian hunter-gatherers and Scandinavian farmers mixed with Scandinavian hunter-gatherers." Dr. Cristina Valdiosera adds.

The study also reports that compared to all modern Spanish populations, the El Portalón individuals are genetically most similar to modern-day Basques. Basques have so far -- based on their distinct culture, non-indo-European language, but also genetic make-up -- been thought of as a population with a long continuity in the area, probably since more than 10,000 years ago.

"Our results show that the Basques trace their ancestry to early farming groups from Iberia, which contradicts previous views of them being a remnant population that trace their ancestry to Mesolithic hunter-gatherer groups," says Prof. Mattias Jakobsson of Uppsala University, who headed the study.
"The difference between Basques and other Iberian groups is these latter ones show distinct features of admixture from the east and from north Africa." he continues.

These findings shed light into the demographic processes taking place in Europe and Iberia during the last 5,000 years which highlights the unique opportunities gained from the collaborative work of archaeologists, anthropologists and geneticists in the analysis of ancient DNA.

"One of the great things about working with ancient DNA is that the data obtained is like opening a time capsule. Seeing the similarities between modern Basques and these early farmers directly tells us that Basques remained relatively isolated for the last 5,000 years but not much longer," says Dr. Torsten Günther.

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Story Source:
The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Uppsala University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Günther et al. Ancient genomes link early farmers from Atapuerca in Spain to modern-day Basques. PNAS, September 2015 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1509851112

November, 1958, Braemar, Deeside, UFO Landing...and Aliens?

 Back in 1959, when this story first got attention in Flying Saucer Review , vol.5, no.3, May-June 1959, what you see in the image below was it.

This is one of the first such incidents in the UK and yet it was ignored because that is how such reports were treated unless they involved "Venusian space brothers" with messages for Mankind!

I have just emailed a number of Scottish newspapers in the hope that the witnesses can be tracked down because of the historical nature of the incident and to learn more.

If anyone reading this has contact with any local or national newspapers or news services in Scotland then please pass this on.  Thanks!

"Hello.

 It may seem odd that I am writing about an event so far back, however, at the time this incident received only the most basic of reporting (see attached jpeg).

 In fact, it may seem odd at all that anyone should find it of interest, however, as a meddler in astronomy amongst other subjects, it always astonished me that the old flying saucer enthusiasts would take very seriously the idea of interplanetary craft whizzing about our planet but would never seriously consider that “someone” must be flying them.

 The witnesses were, in 1958, teenagers so would now be in their sixties. Police records at that time would have been routinely destroyed every few years.  My former RAF colleagues tell me that the Air Ministry at the time were never involved.  To an historian this is awful.  This would have been one of the first such cases in the United Kingdom at a time when there was no craze to report aliens in every media.

  I would very much like to track down these two men, if still alive, or their families since the incident is said to have affected them so badly and the police were involved it is no doubt an account that has been passed along.  There is no pre-judging here, nor any attempt at ridiculing these witnesses, but it is very important that some form of account/record be made –it is too important an event to just ignore it.

 Anonymity will be strictly maintained though, of course, in any published account pseudonyms would be used.

 I can be contacted via the email given or through my address.

 My thanks in advance.

Terry Hooper-Scharf"

blacktowercg@hotmail.com

How Do You Feel About Panspermia?

gUh, well, it's all a bit vague and looks like someone got bored and wanted to get a news headline.  The story should be far more "meatier" than this.  Incidentally, yes, I corrected the typo in this story -do they have editors at Yahoo! ?
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/aliens-could-be-spreading-from-planet-to-planet--like-a-plague-162550200.html#fAPvBXA

Panspermia (Nasa/PA)

Aliens could be spreading from planet to planet like a relentless plague, hitching rides on meteorites and ‘infecting’ new worlds like an epidemic on Earth.

But if they are, we can spot them, experts believe.

The idea of alien life spreading like ‘seeds’ on the wind isn’t new - the theory is known as ‘Panspermia’.

But a new paper from experts at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics suggests that if like is ‘spreading’ through the universe in this way, it will form patterns that we could see.

Lead author Henry Lin said, ‘'In our theory, clusters of life form, grow, and overlap like bubbles in a pot of boiling water.

 'Life could spread in a pattern similar to the outbreak of an epidemic'

The pattern could be visible to our telescopes, Lin claims.

Lin says, ‘'Any species which acquires panspermia abilities will have enormous fitness advantages.

'Just as viruses evolved to brave the 'harsh' environment of 'inter-host' space to harness the energy of multiple biological hosts, perhaps evolution has or will drive a class of organisms to brave the harsh environment of interstellar space to harness the energy of multiple stellar hosts.'

Well, this should be fun for them!

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/scientist-plan-resurrecting-30000-year-old-virus

Scientists Plan On Resurrecting A 30,000-Year-Old Giant Virus

by Josh L Davis

Photo credit: Electron microscopy image of the Pithovirus discovered in the same 30,000-year-old sample of the newly described Milliovirus. Julia Bartoli & Chantal Abergel, IGS, CNRS/AMU

 

Scientists will attempt to reanimate a long extinct 30,000-year-old “giant” virus discovered frozen in the permafrost of Siberia. Found buried 30 meters (100 feet) deep in the frozen soil, this could be the second time that the team of researchers will reawaken a prehistoric virus. Called Mollivirus sibericum, this is the fourth prehistoric virus to have been discovered in the last decade and raises questions about what other ones might be locked in the icy tundra.

Giant viruses are those that measure longer than half a micron, or a thousandth of a millimeter, and thus can be observed under a light microscope, unlike other viruses that are far too tiny. Mollivirus sibericum – literally “soft virus from Siberia” – comes in at 0.6 microns, just making it into the giant virus group. Before attempting to revive it, the team of researchers plan on determining if the virus is deadly to animals or humans, though considering all previous examples have turned out to be harmless, the likelihood that this one proves deadly is not very high.

But that doesn’t mean that in the future, other viruses found frozen in the permafrost will be similarly benign. The scientists warn that with climate change melting the ground in northern Siberia at an increasing rate, there is the potential for a more harmful virus being awakened. And in conjunction with an increase in activity in the region in a race for the oil and minerals locked below it, who knows what could be unearthed.     

“A few viral particles that are still infectious may be enough, in the presence of a vulnerable host, to revive potentially pathogenic viruses,” explained Jean-Michel Claverie, one of the lead authors of the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, to AFP. “If we are not careful, and we industrialise these areas without putting safeguards in place, we run the risk of one day waking up viruses such as smallpox that we thought were eradicated.”

The new virus is the second discovered by Claverie and his team, who in 2013 described and, a year later, resurrected Pithovirus sibericum, which was found in the same 30,000-year-old sample of permafrost. What surprised the scientists was not only that they retained their capacity to infect amoeba, but that these prehistoric viruses are much more genetically complex than their smaller modern counterparts. The newly discovered Mollivirus has over 500 genes, and Pithovirus an astonishing 2,500, whereas Influenza A, for example, only has eight.

In safe laboratory conditions, the researchers hope to try and revive the newly discovered virus in order to better understand its origin and mode of evolution. And if it can be easily revived, as before, the authors note that this find "should be of concern in a context of global warming."

The Greys Are Here...Squirrels I Mean -though this is about a black squirrel!

You see, my peripheral vision has been honed over the years to pick up any odd movement -light in the sky, movement in bushes (don't ask) and so on.

So, I stood by the bus stop across the road enjoying the sun when I caught something black. It took less than a second to go from littler to it being organic and...a black squirrel.  Went into the garden after crossing the road about 100m/100 yds away.

It explains what has been munching on the apples in my garden other than the foxes or hedgehogs. With a huge crop of acorns on the oak tree it ought to be fun seeing which gets there first -the jay or the squirrel!

If only I had a good camera.

Incidentally, you can get melanistic (black) red or grey squirrels and as we have greys locally (no, not the aliens) I think it safe to identify this one as a melanistic grey squirrel.

New Species Of Human Discovered In South Africa

I have often written that the ancestry of Humankind is not fully known and that there will always be more than a few new discoveries.  Even when records were kept what they contained often went missing or was forgotten -look at the discovery of civilization in the Amazon or other great ancient cities discovered.

So, even though I was excited by this...I was going to write "it was bound to happen eventually" but that is just too stupid.  Read the story. I need to get this issue of National Geographic!

by Justine Alford

http://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/newly-discovered-human-ancestor-likely-ritualistically-disposed-its-dead 

Photo credit: A reconstruction of Homo naledi’s head by paleoartist John Gurche, who spent some 700 hours recreating the head from bone scans. University of the Witwatersrand, National Geographic Society and the South African National Research Foundation.

 

Brace yourself: this discovery is huge. So huge that its profound implications will shake up our very own family tree. The University of Witwatersrand, in collaboration with National Geographic, is proud to announce a remarkable story of human heritage. The discovery of an early human ancestor that sits beautifully within our own genus of Homo. I ecstatically present to you, Homo naledi.


This incredible fossil find comes from the richest single hominin assemblage so far discovered in Africa. A gift that keeps on giving, the species not only enlightens us on the origins and diversity of man, but also seems to display a behavior long believed to be unique to humans, even perhaps a defining feature of our species: deliberately disposing of its dead in an isolated chamber. The discovery has been published in two papers in the open access journal eLife.


A textbook-worthy accident, H. naledi was first stumbled upon two years ago by amateur cavers during an exploration of a cave system known as Rising Star, located within South Africa’s famous Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site. From this, the Rising Star Expedition was born, starting in November 2013 with a 21 day exploration involving a team of 60 scientists and volunteer cavers. Expecting to recover a single skeleton, just three days in they realized they had much more than that, “something different and extraordinary,” research leader Lee Berger said at a press event IFLScience attended.


That something different turned out to be not several, but 15 individuals from a single hominin species, represented by more than 1,500 fossil elements found within a single chamber in total darkness some 90 meters (295 feet) from the entrance. Named in tribute to the chamber, naledi means “star” in the South African language Sesotho. And sure, 1,500 sounds like a lot, is a lot, but the team believes that there are thousands and thousands of remains still untouched. “The floor is practically made of bones of these individuals,” Berger added.

^{Homo naledi. cc John Hawks_Wits University}


In fact, so many have been recovered that almost every skeletal element of the body is represented multiple times throughout different age groups, from infants to teens, to young adults and the elderly. And the species seems to be a wonderful pick and mix of both primitive and human-like features. An exceptionally tall hominid, the bipedal H. naledi stood at around 150 centimeters (5 feet) and was distinctively slender, with powerful, well-muscled joints. Its skinny human proportions and long legs likely relate to the fact that it didn’t have to support much bodyweight, weighing in at around 45 kilograms (100 pounds).


Tall this species may have been, but members had an astonishingly tiny head. So tiny that their brains were as small as that of the smallest australopith – a group of extinct early hominins – with the females’ brains only being slightly larger than a chimpanzee’s at around 450-550 cubic centimeters (27-34 cubic inches). There was only a very small discrepancy between males and females, not just in terms of brain size but throughout the entire body. In fact, all of the individuals were remarkably similar, more so than if you were looking at sets of identical human twins, Berger said. Consequently, it is believed the individuals were likely closely related, perhaps a multi-generational family.


What is also remarkable is how the species seems to transition in its features, from primitive to modern, as you move down the limbs. The top of the limbs – the pelvis and shoulders – are primitive, like its cone-shaped core, but they culminate in astonishingly human-like extremities. The hand is almost entirely human-like, except for the highly curved fingers: perfect if they’re trying to grip things. But their shoulders were able to rotate more than ours, suggesting they engaged in climbing. And the feet were virtually indistinguishable from ours, making contact with the ground in a similar way.

^{Homo naledi foot and partially reconstructed skull. Taken at the University of Witwatersrand. Credit: Justine Alford}


So how did this collection of individuals arrive in this dark, isolated and extremely difficult to access cave? And difficult is not an understatement: one of the narrowest cracks was a mere 17.5 centimeters wide, and as far as the group can tell, there were no other entrances to the tiny chamber. So unwelcoming that no other species were found here, aside from a few rodent and bird bones.


After ruling all of the probable scenarios, such as mass death, transport by water and predation, the team was left with the improbable: this species was deliberately, repeatedly disposing of its dead in a protected area, away from the external environment. Before now, we thought that was a characteristic specific to modern humans.


“What does that mean for us?” ponders Berger. “Did we inherit it, has it always been there in our lineage, or did they invent it?” And for a species with such a tiny brain, the latter possibility is mind-boggling.


Of course, the questions do not end there. The chamber was in total darkness. How did the individuals navigate their way round these slender, jagged tunnels with death-drops around multiple corners?
“Is it a coincidence that the earliest evidence of controlled fire is only 800 meters away?” asked Berger, referring to the nearby National Heritage Site of Swartkrans. “It’s speculation… But animals don’t go into the dark.”


Aside from the evidence of ritualistic burial, what else do we know about their behavior? “Nothing,” Berger chuckled to IFLScience. “We can infer from their bodies that they are long-distance walkers, again that’s something almost unique to humans. And it’s pretty clear from those fingers that they’re climbing, but we don’t know what they’re climbing. That’s not a tree climbing hand.”



^{Homo naledi hand, showing the curved fingers, taken at the University of Witswatersrand. Credit: Justine Alford}


As it stands, we don’t know how old the fossils are, nor do we know for how long the species existed. But we know it’s a minimum of 2 million years old, perhaps even close to 3 million, and at the very least a candidate for the base of our genus, says Berger.

And if you want to see and encounter this historic find for yourself, the fossils will be on display for an entire month in the Cradle of Humankind's official visitor center, Maropeng.

^{Header image from the October issue of National Geographic magazine.}