A new method for estimating the biological sex of human remains based on reading protein sequences rather than DNA has been used to study an archaeological site in Northern California. The protein-based technique developed at the University of California, Davis, gave superior results to DNA analysis in studying 55 sets of human remains between 300 and 2,300 years old.
Inuit sled dogs have changed little since people migrated with them to the North American Arctic across the Bering Strait from Siberia, according to UC Davis researchers and colleagues who have examined DNA from the dogs from that time span. The legacy of these Inuit dogs survives today in Arctic sled dogs, making them one of the last remaining descendant populations of indigenous, pre-European dog lineages in the Americas.
The FOXP2 gene has been associated with uniquely human language abilities. But a UC Davis scientist and colleagues did a study with a wider variety of people and found no evidence of selection for FOXP2 in modern humans, challenging previous of how we think humans acquired language.
