Unexpectedly simple

Chinook salmon are known to return to spawn at two distinct times of the year: spring and fall. Individuals that return during these times have generally been referred to as parts of distinct groups, or ecotypes, with traits specific to their timing and presumed divergence being caused by the lack of interbreeding. By looking at genomes across fish from both runs, Thompson et al. found that a single genomic region of interest was nearly perfectly associated with run timing but not with other traits such as maturity and fat reserves (see the Perspective by McKinney). Further, they conclude that the region operates as a Mendelian trait, with assortment dictating run timing and associated phenotypes being caused by the migration environment rather than genetics.

Science, this issue p. 609; see also p. 526

Abstract

Differentiation between ecotypes is usually presumed to be complex and polygenic. Seasonal patterns of life history in salmon are used to categorize them into ecotypes, which are often considered “distinct” animals. Using whole-genome sequencing and tribal fishery sampling of Chinook salmon, we show that a single, small genomic region is nearly perfectly associated with spawning migration timing but not with adiposity or sexual maturity, traits long perceived as central to salmon ecotypes. Distinct migration timing does not prevent interbreeding between ecotypes, which are the result of a simple, ancient polymorphism segregating within a diverse population. Our finding that a complex migratory phenotype results from a single gene region will facilitate conservation and restoration of this iconic fish.

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Science  30 Oct 2020:

Vol. 370, Issue 6516, pp. 609-613

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When archaeologists discovered the bones of a 9000-year-old human in a burial pit high in the Andes, they were impressed by a tool kit of 20 stone projectile points and blades stacked neatly by the person’s side. All signs pointed to the discovery of a high-status hunter. “Everybody was talking about how this was a great chief, a big man,” says archaeologist Randy Haas of the University of California (UC), Davis.

Then, bioarchaeologist Jim Watson of the University of Arizona noted that the bones were slender and light. “I think your hunter might be female,” he told Haas.

Now, the researchers report that the burial was indeed that of a female, challenging the long-standing “man the hunter” hypothesis. Her existence led them to reexamine reports of other ancient burials in the Americas, and they found 10 additional women buried with projectile points who may also have been hunters. “The message [of the new finding] is that women have always been able to hunt and have in fact hunted,” says archaeologist Bonnie Pitblado of the University of Oklahoma, Norman, who was not part of the study.

The “man the hunter hypothesis,” which prevailed after an influential symposium in Chicago in 1966, held that during the course of human evolution, men hunted and women gathered—and they seldom switched those gender roles. Some researchers challenged the notion, and ancient female warriors have been found recently, but archaeological evidence of women hunting has been scant. And the idea that all hunters were male has been bolstered by studies of the few present-day groups of hunter gatherers, such as the Hadza of Tanzania and San of southern Africa. In those cultures, men hunt large animals and women gather tubers, fruits, nuts, and seeds.

Haas and his team, including local Aymara colleagues, weren’t intending to study female hunters. They discovered the fossilized remains of six individuals in burial pits at the archaeological site of Wilamaya Patjxa at 3925 meters’ altitude on the windswept altiplano of southern Peru. Two people were buried with stone tools. One person, likely 17 to 19 years old, was accompanied by four projectile points that would have been attached to short spears for hunting, several cutting blades, a possible knife, and scraper tools likely used for processing animal hides and meat. The 20 stone tools and ochre, which can be used to tan hides, were neatly stacked next to the top of one individual’s thigh bone, as if they had been held in a leather pouch that had disintegrated. Another person, likely 25 to 35 years old at death, was buried with two projectile points. The pits also held bone fragments of Andean deer and camelids, such as vicuña or guanaco.

The researchers figured out the sex of the bones using a new forensics method developed by co-author Glendon Parker of UC Davis. The technique analyzes whether an individual’s tooth enamel carries a male or female version of a protein called amelogenin. The individual with the impressive toolkit was female; the other person with hunting tools was male. Studies of isotopes of carbon and nitrogen in the woman’s teeth showed she ate a typical hunter’s diet of animal meat and plants.

Others find the evidence of a female hunter convincing. “It’s a smoking gun,” says archaeologist Meg Conkey of UC Berkeley, who was not part of the study. “But skeptics might say it’s a one-off.”

Haas anticipated that concern: In a search of reports of burials at 107 other sites in the Americas older than 8000 years, he found 10 other women and 16 men also buried with hunting tools. This meta-analysis suggests “early big-game hunting was likely gender neutral,” he and his colleagues report today in Science Advances.

Robert Kelly of the University of Wyoming applauds the discovery of the female hunter but isn’t convinced by many of the other potential cases. He points out that having tools in the same grave as a person doesn’t always mean they used them in life. Two burials were female infants found with hunting implements, for example. Buried tools could also have been offerings from male hunters to express their sorrow, he says.

Pitblado says that even if not all of those female remains belonged to hunters, the meta-analysis suggests women have long been capable of hunting, and provides hints about where to look more closely for evidence. Human ecologist Eugenia Gayo of the University of Chile agrees. Such research could help answer questions such as “What were the type of environments where everybody got involved in the hunting?” she says.

It shouldn’t be surprising that women could hunt, Pitblado adds. “These women were living high up in the Andes, at 13,000 feet full time,” she says. “If you can do that, surely you can bring down a deer.”

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https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/11/woman-hunter-ancient-andean-remains-challenge-old-ideas-who-speared-big-game

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Declassified FBI Files Confirm Existence of Gigantic 'Human-Like Aliens', Report Claims

The papers leaked online suggest a grave situation may occur at any time "with regard to flying saucers" as those allegedly multidimensional structures would level any human-built craft.

The FBI has declassified documents mentioning flying saucers and "multidimensional beings", it follows from an almost 70-page report penned by an unnamed professor and recently leaked online, reportedly on the FBI's online vault. According to Alienstar and the Daily Star, the files dubbed Memorandum 6751 by UFOlogists discuss alien encounters dating back to 1947, mentioning extraterrestrial ray wielding "disks" and other alien objects.

"A very serious situation may develop at any time with regard to flying saucers. If one of these should be attacked the attacking plane will almost certainly be destroyed", the report reads, stating that in the public's mind this might create "near panic" along with international suspicion.

"This principle data concerning these craft is now at hand and must be offered no matter how fantastic and unintelligible it may seem to minds not previously instructed in thinking of this type", it explains dwelling on the incidents.

The report's anonymous author proceeds to depict the "flying saucers" and the way they operate:

"Part of the disks carry crews, others are under remote control", the files read insisting their mission is nothing but peaceful, but possess enough capacity to deal with human weaponry.

The report alleges that the visitors – "human-like but much larger in size" - contemplate "settling on this plane", and they travel on the disks that boast "a type of radiant energy, or ray, which will easily disintegrate any attacking ship".

Pointing to the objects' unrivalled elusiveness, it says they reenter from the etheric (their purported home according to the report) "at will and so simply disappear from our vision without trace".

The leak comes days after a jaw-dropping video emerged showing a shiny silver object, universally deemed to be a UFO or the US secret fleet, shooting through the skies adjacent to a passenger plane taking off from the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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https://sputniknews.com/society/202009071080386845-declassified-fbi-files-confirm-existence-of-gigantic-human-like-aliens-report-claims/

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Read also: http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/34925

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