DailyDirt: Really Old Biology

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

So far, we only know about our own biosphere -- and we don't even know that much about it. People have tried (and have not really succeeded) to re-create an artificial biosphere that could include humans in the mix. It turns out that while life is pretty resilient, it's also somewhat narrowly adapted to certain environmental conditions. There's still a lot of biological history that we might learn from -- if we're going to understand how our modern genes were developed and what conditions they can continue to adapt to. So here are a few historically-interesting biological tidbits.
  • Some 34,000-year-old bacteria have been found in suspended animation -- trapped in a salt crystal. When 34,000 years old you are, look as good, you will not. [url]
  • During the Archaean eon, it looks like the Earth's atmosphere had increasing oxygen levels -- and a huge growth of new kinds of bacteria. It's actually pretty neat what we can learn about the biosphere a couple billion years ago by just looking at modern DNA samples. [url]
  • Mrs. T is the first discovered female pterodactyl, confirming that the male pterodactyls had large head crests. And Mr. T pities the fool who thought the female pterodactyls were the ones who had the head crests. [url]
  • A 30,000-year-old pinkie bone from a little girl has DNA that suggests there's another link in the chain of human ancestors. Or it could be another branch on our family tree.... Either way, someday she'll be cloned, and we'll see what she looked like. [url]
  • Hide this

    Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

    Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

    While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

    –The Techdirt Team

    Filed Under: bacteria, biosphere, dna, pterodactyl


    Reader Comments

    Subscribe: RSS

    View by: Time | Thread


    • icon
      Richard (profile), 21 Jan 2011 @ 5:10pm

      Er-hem

      Actually the males had the large crests. As the article (and the actual scientist from the research group I heard on the radio this morning) says quite clearly.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      alternatives(), 22 Jan 2011 @ 4:24am

      another link in the chain of human ancestors

      In the darker parts of the internet you can find references to a 'star child' and claims of 30% of 'non earth' DNA.

      In the parts where you chant "Gattica!" the US Military is planning on DNA mapping all of their property^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hsoldiers^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hemployees.

      Someplace these two parts merge and answer (or provide even more questions) on the interlinked metal rings of human ancestry exists.

      link to this | view in chronology ]


    Follow Techdirt
    Essential Reading
    Techdirt Deals
    Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
    Techdirt Insider Discord

    The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

    Loading...
    Recent Stories

    This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
    Close

    Email This

    This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.