TY  - JOUR
A1  - Knapp, Michael
A1  - Lalueza-Fox, Carles
A1  - Hofreiter, Michael
T1  - Re-inventing ancient human DNA
JF  - Investigative Genetics
N2  - For a long time, the analysis of ancient human DNA represented one of the most controversial disciplines in an already controversial field of research. Scepticism in this field was only matched by the long-lasting controversy over the authenticity of ancient pathogen DNA. This ambiguous view on ancient human DNA had a dichotomous root. On the one hand, the interest in ancient human DNA is great because such studies touch on the history and evolution of our own species. On the other hand, because these studies are dealing with samples from our own species, results are easily compromised by contamination of the experiments with modern human DNA, which is ubiquitous in the environment. Consequently, some of the most disputed studies published - apart maybe from early reports on million year old dinosaur or amber DNA - reported DNA analyses from human subfossil remains. However, the development of so-called next-or second-generation sequencing (SGS) in 2005 and the technological advances associated with it have generated new confidence in the genetic study of ancient human remains. The ability to sequence shorter DNA fragments than with PCR amplification coupled to traditional Sanger sequencing, along with very high sequencing throughput have both reduced the risk of sequencing modern contamination and provided tools to evaluate the authenticity of DNA sequence data. The field is now rapidly developing, providing unprecedented insights into the evolution of our own species and past human population dynamics as well as the evolution and history of human pathogens and epidemics. Here, we review how recent technological improvements have rapidly transformed ancient human DNA research from a highly controversial subject to a central component of modern anthropological research. We also discuss potential future directions of ancient human DNA research.
KW  - Archaic humans
KW  - Human evolution
KW  - Human population genomics
KW  - Next/second-generation sequencing
Y1  - 2015
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1186/s13323-015-0020-4
SN  - 2041-2223
VL  - 6
PB  - BioMed Central
CY  - London
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Trauth, Martin H.
A1  - Bergner, Andreas G. N.
A1  - Foerster, Verena
A1  - Junginger, Annett
A1  - Maslin, Mark A.
A1  - Schäbitz, Frank
T1  - Episodes of environmental stability versus instability in Late Cenozoic lake records of Eastern Africa
JF  - Journal of human evolution
N2  - Episodes of environmental stability and instability may be equally important for African hominin speciation, dispersal, and cultural innovation. Three examples of a change from stable to unstable environmental conditions are presented on three different time scales: (1) the Mid Holocene (MH) wet dry transition in the Chew Bahir basin (Southern Ethiopian Rift; between 11 ka and 4 ka), (2) the MIS 5-4 transition in the Naivasha basin (Central Kenya Rift; between 160 ka and 50 ka), and (3) the Early Mid Pleistocene Transition (EMPT) in the Olorgesailie basin (Southern Kenya Rift; between 1.25 Ma and 0.4 Ma). A probabilistic age modeling technique is used to determine the timing of these transitions, taking into account possible abrupt changes in the sedimentation rate including episodes of no deposition (hiatuses). Interestingly, the stable-unstable conditions identified in the three records are always associated with an orbitally-induced decrease of insolation: the descending portion of the 800 kyr cycle during the EMPT, declining eccentricity after the 115 ka maximum at the MIS 5-4 transition, and after similar to 10 ka. This observation contributes to an evidence-based discussion of the possible mechanisms causing the switching between environmental stability and instability in Eastern Africa at three different orbital time scales (10,000 to 1,000,000 years) during the Cenozoic. This in turn may lead to great insights into the environmental changes occurring at the same time as hominin speciation, brain expansion, dispersal out of Africa, and cultural innovations and may provide key evidence to build new hypotheses regarding the causes of early human evolution. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
KW  - Paleoclimate
KW  - East Africa
KW  - Human evolution
KW  - Lakes
KW  - Sediments
Y1  - 2015
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.03.011
SN  - 0047-2484
VL  - 87
SP  - 21
EP  - 31
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - London
ER  -