Reconstructing the Evolutionary Relationship!

It is good to know that finally researchers have found way to reconstruct the evolutionary relationship between a two million year old giant primate and the living orangutan. First time ever this kind of old genetic material has been retrieved from a fossil in a subtropical area which further allows the researchers to reconstruct animal, including human, evolutionary processes in real time. Researchers have been able to retrieve genetic information from a 1.9 million year old extinct by using ancient protein sequencing, which is a giant primate that used to live in a subtropical area in southern China. With the help of this, the genetic information allows the researchers to uncover the evolutionary position of Gigantopithecus blacki, a three-meter tall which is approximately up to 600 kg heavy primate, revealing the orangutan as its closest, living relative. However it is a known fact that Primates have been relatively close to humans and this study shows protein sequencing can be used easily to retrieve ancient genetic information from primates living in subtropical areas even with two million years old fossil. Till date it is only possible to retrieve genetic information from up to 10,000-year-old fossils in warm, humid areas. As ancient remains of the supposed ancestors of our species, Homo sapiens are also mainly found in subtropical areas, particularly for the early part of human evolution which makes it clear that we can potentially retrieve similar information on the evolutionary line leading to humans', reported by Frido Welker. However our scientists know that the human and the chimpanzee lineages have been split around seven or eight million years ago but with the previous methodologies, only retrieve human genetic information was possible not older than 400,000 years. Aside to this, the new results show the possibility to extend the genetic reconstruction of the evolutionary relationships between our species and extinct ones further back in time, at least up to two million years which covers a much larger portion of the entire human evolution. Also, in a recent study, which was also published on Nature, Enrico Cappellini, Associate Professor at the Globe Institute and senior author on this study, initially demonstrated, in collaboration with an international team of colleagues, the massive potential of ancient protein sequencing. The study of human evolution by palaeoproteomics will anyway go on for next few years through the recently established "Palaeoproteomics to Unleash Studies on Human History (PUSHH)" Marie Skiodowska Curie European Training Network (ETN) Programme.

By: Anuja Arora
Content: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191113153053.htm