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Early Humans

The Pioneers of Pestering Humanity: Uncovering the Evolutionary History of Bed Bugs

Researchers compared the whole genome sequence of two genetically distinct lineages of bed bug, and their findings indicate bed bugs may well be the first true urban pest.

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As we stand at the forefront of modern civilization, it’s hard to imagine that our most unwelcome companions – bed bugs – have been alongside us for over 60,000 years. A recent study led by researchers from Virginia Tech has revealed that bed bugs may be one of the first human pests, with a history that mirrors the expansion and growth of our species.

The researchers compared the whole genome sequence of two genetically distinct lineages of bed bugs: those associated with humans and those with bats. The findings published in Biology Letters suggest that the human-associated lineage has followed a similar demographic pattern as humans, growing exponentially as cities expanded and populations increased.

“This is an exciting discovery because it highlights the co-evolutionary relationship between humans and bed bugs,” said Lindsay Miles, lead author of the study. “We wanted to look at changes in effective population size, which can tell us what’s been happening in their past.”

The historical and evolutionary symbiotic relationship between humans and bed bugs will inform models that predict the spread of pests and diseases under urban population expansion. By directly tying human global expansion to the emergence and evolution of urban pests like bed bugs, researchers may identify the traits that co-evolved in both humans and pests during urban expansion.

In particular, the study highlights the growth of the human-associated lineage as cities expanded into larger settlements around 12,000 years ago. This corresponds with the early establishment of large human settlements that grew into cities such as Mesopotamia.

“It makes sense because modern humans moved out of caves about 60,000 years ago,” said Warren Booth, the Joseph R. and Mary W. Wilson Urban Entomology Associate Professor. “There were bed bugs living in the caves with these humans, and when they moved out they took a subset of the population with them so there’s less genetic diversity in that human-associated lineage.”

The researchers are now interested in further studying this 245,000 year old lineage split, focusing on the evolutionary alterations of the human-associated lineage compared with the bat-associated lineage that have taken place more recently. In particular, they are looking into what happened in the last 100 to 120 years, when bed bugs were thought to be eradicated but started reappearing and resisting pesticides.

The study is a great example of how researchers can “follow the science” and explore new areas of research, thanks in part to the Joseph R. and Mary W. Wilson endowment that supports Booth’s faculty position.

“It’s a great resource to have,” said Booth. “We are using it for work investigating the evolution of insecticide resistance and species spread using museum specimens collected from 120 years ago to our present-day samples. I’m very lucky to have that freedom to explore.”

Ancient Civilizations

Uncovering Ancient Native American Farms in Michigan: A Drone-Based Study Reveals 1,000-Year-Old Farming System

In the dense forests of Michigan s Upper Peninsula, archaeologists have uncovered a massive ancient agricultural system that rewrites what we thought we knew about Native American farming. Dating back as far as the 10th century, the raised ridged fields built by the ancestors of the Menominee Indian Tribe covered a vast area and were used for cultivating staple crops like corn and squash. Using drone-mounted lidar and excavations, researchers found evidence of a complex and labor-intensive system, defying the stereotype that small, egalitarian societies lacked such agricultural sophistication. Alongside farming ridges, they also discovered burial mounds, dance rings, and possible colonial-era foundations, hinting at a once-thriving cultural landscape previously obscured by forest.

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The Dartmouth-led study has made a groundbreaking discovery in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, uncovering a 1,000-year-old Native American farm system that challenges preconceived ideas about agriculture in the region. The Sixty Islands archaeological site along the Menominee River features a raised ridge field system dating back to around the 10th century to 1600. This is the most complete ancient agricultural site in the eastern half of the United States.

The researchers surveyed approximately 330 acres using drone-based lidar, which provided a dataset that revealed clusters of ridged garden beds ranging from 4 to 12 inches in height. These raised fields were used by ancestors of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin to grow corn, beans, squash, and other plants.

Lead author Madeleine McLeester noted that the scale of this agricultural system is 10 times larger than previously estimated, forcing a reconsideration of preconceived ideas about agriculture in the region and globally. The team’s findings also suggest that the ancestral Menominee communities were modifying the soil to rework the topography, using wetland soils to enrich the soil and remain from fires as compost.

The researchers conducted excavations at the site, recovering charcoal, broken ceramics, and artifacts, which suggested that remains from fires and household refuse were likely used as compost in the fields. The results showed that the farming system was a massive undertaking requiring organization, labor, and know-how to maximize agricultural productivity.

The findings have significant implications for our understanding of ancient agriculture in eastern North America and challenge existing forest history of the Upper Peninsula. The team is continuing their work with the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin at the Menominee Sixty Islands site, planning to survey the site and locate ancestral Menominee villages.

This study demonstrates the importance of innovative technologies like drone-based lidar in uncovering hidden archaeological features and provides a unique window into pre-Colonial farming practices in the region. The discovery of this 1,000-year-old farm system serves as a reminder of the rich history and cultural heritage of the Native American communities that once thrived in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

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Ancient Civilizations

Uncovering Hidden Secrets: A 3,500-Year-Old Cemetery Reveals New Insights into Bronze Age History

Bronze Age life changed radically around 1500 BC in Central Europe. New research reveals diets narrowed, millet was introduced, migration slowed, and social systems became looser challenging old ideas about nomadic Tumulus culture herders.

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The discovery of a 3,500-year-old cemetery in Hungary has shed new light on a pivotal period in Central European history. A team of international researchers, led by Tamás Hajdu and Claudio Cavazzuti, has conducted a comprehensive bioarchaeological investigation into the Bronze Age cemetery at Tiszafüred-Majoroshalom. The findings have rewritten our understanding of this era, revealing significant changes in people’s lives, diets, social systems, and even burial customs.

The multidisciplinary research was based on the excavation of a Bronze Age cemetery that was used during both the Middle Bronze Age (Füzesabony culture) and the Late Bronze Age (Tumulus culture). By comparing the subsistence strategies before and after this era-changing event, the researchers were able to identify key differences in people’s lifestyles.

The study aimed to answer whether the spread of the Tumulus culture was a result of new groups arriving or if it was simply an evolution of the autochtonous people’s way of life. The team also examined whether changes in settlement patterns around 1500 BC were indicative of a shift towards more mobile and pastoral lifestyles.

The results of this groundbreaking research are nothing short of revolutionary:

* Dietary changes: Nitrogen stable isotope studies revealed that people’s diets became more uniform but poorer during the Late Bronze Age, contradicting previous ideas about the Tumulus culture’s supposed focus on animal husbandry.
* Introduction of broomcorn millet: Carbon isotope analyses indicated that the consumption of this fast-growing and high-energy plant began at the start of the Late Bronze Age, marking the earliest known occurrence in Europe.
* Decreased mobility: Strontium isotope investigations showed that populations from the Middle and Late Bronze Ages had distinct mobility patterns. Fewer immigrants were identified during the Late Bronze Age, with a higher presence of individuals arriving from further geographical regions.

The study’s findings have significant implications for our understanding of this pivotal period in European history. By combining traditional archaeological and anthropological studies with modern bioarchaeological analyses, researchers can now better grasp the complex changes associated with the emergence of the Tumulus culture.

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Animal Learning and Intelligence

The Brainy Advantage: How Asian Elephants Outshine Their African Relatives

African elephants are the largest land animals on earth and significantly larger than their relatives in Asia, from which they are separated by millions of years of evolution. Nevertheless, Asian elephants have a 20 percent heavier brain, as scientists were able to demonstrate. They also showed that elephant brains triple in weight after birth. These results provide potential explanations for behavioral differences between African and Asian elephants as well as for the pachyderms’ long youth, during which they gain enormous experience and learn social skills.

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The article delves into the fascinating world of elephant brains, highlighting the distinct differences between their Asian and African counterparts. Despite being separated by millions of years of evolution, research has revealed that Asian elephants possess a 20% heavier brain than their larger African relatives. This groundbreaking finding, published in the scientific journal “PNAS Nexus,” sheds light on potential explanations for behavioral differences between the two species, as well as their remarkable youth and long lifespan.

Elephants are renowned for their exceptional social and intelligent nature, yet surprisingly little is known about their brains. A team of international researchers, led by Malav Shah and Michael Brecht from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, has analyzed the weight and structure of Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) and African elephant (Loxodonta africana) brains based on dissections of wild and zoo animals, as well as literature data and MRI scans. Their findings show that adult female Asian elephants have significantly heavier brains, weighing an average of 5,300 grams, compared to their African counterparts, which weigh around 4,400 grams.

Moreover, the cerebellum is proportionally heavier in African elephants (22% of total brain weight) than in Asian elephants (19%). The researchers attribute this difference to the more complex motor function of the trunk in African elephants, which can perform diverse movements with their two trunk fingers. This is also reflected in a higher number of neurons in the trunk’s control center in the brain.

The study further reveals that elephant brains grow almost as much as human brains after birth, tripling in weight by adulthood. This remarkable postnatal brain growth exceeds that of all primates, except humans, where the brain at birth weighs only around a fifth of its final weight. The researchers emphasize that this finding is significant for understanding motor skills and social behavior in elephants.

The study’s authors highlight the challenges involved in acquiring elephant brains for research, as extracting them from skulls is a complex veterinary procedure rarely performed. Nevertheless, they were able to analyze 19 brains extracted from deceased zoo animals or wild elephants, including those obtained from dissections of wild elephants that had died. The inclusion of data from an earlier study by another research team further strengthened their analysis.

The implications of these findings are profound, suggesting that the difference in brain weight could explain important behavioral differences between Asian and African elephants. For instance, while both species interact with humans differently, Asian elephants have been partially domesticated over thousands of years and are used as work animals in various cultures and regions. In contrast, there are only a few cases where domestication was even partially successful for African elephants.

The study’s authors conclude that social factors and learning processes could explain the strong brain growth after birth, as elephants live in complex social structures and have an outstanding memory. The experience and accumulated knowledge of adult elephants, especially matriarchs, is central to group behavior in elephants and young animals are closely cared for over a long period of childhood and adolescence.

Ultimately, this research highlights the need for further investigation into the brains of Asian and African elephants and their significance for motor skills and social behavior. As the authors note, there are many unanswered questions in researching these fascinating, intelligent animals and their “control centers.”

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