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SCITECH
of history and genetics lies in
these rare (and expensive)
sources of endogenous DNA in
certain skulls. Unfortunately,
with the increasing prevalence
of dairy products and
milk from various animals,
lactose intolerance remained.
The lactose persistence
allele is found only after the
Neolithic/Copper Age and the
late Bronze Age samples are
the first found, around 1,000
BC. Oetzi the Ice Man, who we
have written about before in
Oetzi, was lactose intolerant,
and was alive during the
Tyrolean Copper age.
Other genes were found
relevant to population
changes. The transition to
the lighter pigmentation of
modern Europeans is indicated
but periods of genetic
stability show up the changes
that occurred at the advent of
the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron
technologies.
Cristina Gamba and Ron
Pinhasi of University College
Dublin and numerous colleagues
from Trinity College,
the Universities of Potsdam,
Cardiff, and Oxford and
several Hungarian museums
produced these spectacular
results in - Genome flux
and stasis in a five millennium
transect of European
prehistory. – www.earthtimes.org
prioritisation of stability
and returning to the
steady gait required for
running was one. The
other involved minimising
the costs to the bird
in energy exertion. The
model simulated the
cautious responses of
all of the birds if the leg
posture was carefully
controlled to avoid the leg
being overloaded.
Next, a very stable,
bipedal robotic ostrich
which we will all find very
useful for ---? – www.
earthtimes.org
Forest loss in NZ reveals
fire prevention ploys
Land use has shifted recently to accommodate frequent large fires
Our NZ cousins,
the Maoris, landed
750 years ago and
did what humans
always do. They
trashed the forest. Considering
what the British did later,
with sheep, stoats and cats,
the damage was less, but still
destroyed many species of flora
and fauna, leaving half of the
13th century native forest for the
later colonisers to destroy in the
18th century. This would have
been evergreen closed-canopy
broadleaf forest dominated by
podocarps.
The Initial Burning Period
of the Maoris can be checked
in pollen and charcoal remains
and found to have taken place
in mere decades. One vulnerable
site was found that was dry
while a wetter site was thought
to be less liable to be affected.
David B McWethy with others
from Montana State University
joined with several colleagues
from New Zealand’s Landcare
Research, and the University
of Auckland to investigate this
unique example of anthropogenic
colonisation effect.
They publish their paper as- A
High-Resolution Chronology of
Rapid Forest Transitions following
Polynesian Arrival in New
Zealand.
The particular interest is in
how small groups of transient
humans can be so effective in
this environment that is made
so vulnerable to fire. Part of the
answer seems to have been the
fire-prone open shrubland vegetation
appeared in place of the
ancient podocarp forest, just as
it appears in some present-day
deforestation situations.
Land use has shifted recently
to accommodate frequent large
fires. To fight this regular and
very wide occurrence, study of
forest loss could lead to solutions
involving a negative feedback to
fire disturbance. We know that
scrub, grassland and shrubby
vegetation encourages fire. The
Credit: © Shutterstock
In Whanganui National Park,
thousands of endangered
brown kiwi (here) and blue duck
survive in the ancient podocarp
forests, this time in North Island
encouragement of resistance
to fire would save lives, livings,
habitat and ancient woods.
The 3 hectare Lake
Kirkpatrick (dry, lowland) and
1.5 hectare Dukes Tarn (wetter,
high elevation) in South Island
represent two vulnerabilities
to fire. AMS (accelerated mass
spectrometry) results from the
sites were able to give accurate
radiocarbon dates from the
lake sediment cores. Twentytwo
dates were obtained from
the 2 sites, using invaluable
charcoal and terrestrial plant
macrofossils.
Lake Kirkpatrick still has
some stands of native silver
beech while the Tarn has
patches of black beech. The first
human-set fires rapidly created
forest transitions. It took only 17
years at Lake Kirkpatrick and 48
years at the Tarn for a significant
decline in native plants to take
place. Every 50-100 years after
that, more fires devastated the
flora until 1600, when the activity
decreased.
Southern beech, Nothofagus
menziessi, Prumnopitys and
podocarps declined from 99% to
47% of the pollen at the first fires,
with ferns and grasses increasing,
then decreasing around
1642. There was some variability
before 1792, after which native
trees pollen reduced to