Check out this new paper that sheds light on the early #evolution of elephants! Straight-tusked #elephants once roamed across #Eurasia, but one lineage became stranded in Japan?! 🐘🧬 Ancient #mtDNA reveals Palaeoloxodon naumanni as an early-diverging lineage that survived in island isolation.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2025.114156
#MetagenomicsMonday #SPAAM #aDNA #palaeogenetics #ancientDNA

14-Jan-2026
Woolly #rhino genome recovered from #IceAge wolf stomach

Researchers from the Centre for #Palaeogenetics have managed to analyse the #genome from a 14,400-year-old #woollyRhinoceros, recovered from a tissue sample found preserved inside the stomach of an ancient #wolf.

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1111979

#science #ecology #evolution #extinction

Woolly rhino genome recovered from Ice Age wolf stomach

Researchers from the Centre for Palaeogenetics have managed to analyse the genome from a 14,400-year-old woolly rhinoceros, recovered from a tissue sample found preserved inside the stomach of an ancient wolf. The study, published in Genome Biology and Evolution, shows that woolly rhinos remained genetically healthy until the end of the last Ice Age. The species therefore probably died out due to a rapid collapse of the population, rather than a slow demographic decline.

EurekAlert!

Svante Pääbo, father of paleogenetics: ‘The reason for the Neanderthals’ extinction lies in how numerous we’ve become’.

The Nobel Prize winner in Medicine is investigating genetic changes that could have given our species a competitive advantage, and the possibility of extracting the genome of the Flores hobbit.

https://mediafaro.org/article/20251006-svante-paabo-father-of-paleogenetics-the-reason-for-the-neanderthals-extinction-lies-in-how-numerous-weve-become?mf_channel=mastodon&action=forward

#SvantePaabo #HomoSapiens #NobelPrize #Paleogenetics #Palaeogenetics #Genetic #Neanderthals #Science

Svante Pääbo, father of paleogenetics: ‘The reason for the Neanderthals’ extinction lies in how numerous we’ve become’.

The Nobel Prize winner in Medicine is investigating genetic changes that could have given our species a competitive advantage, and the possibility of extracting the genome of the Flores hobbit.

El País