Ancient DNA tells polar bears' story
Polar bear DNA from a partially fossilized jawbone found in Norway shows that the species is relatively young and adapted quickly to the arctic environment.
Researchers in the U.S., Norway and Iceland extracted DNA from a jawbone and tooth found in 2004. The remains are estimated to be between 110,000 and 130,000 years old.
The research analysis, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows how the polar bear is related to the brown bear and how quickly they responded to changes in climate.
"Our results confirm that the polar bear is an evolutionarily young species that split off from brown bears some 150,000 years ago and evolved extremely rapidly during the late Pleistocene, perhaps adapting to the opening of new habitats and food sources in response to climate changes just before the last interglacial period," said Charlotte Lindqvist of the University of Buffalo, in a statement.
5 comments:
Kinda throws cold water on Glo-Bull Warming, eh James?
Anon @ 7:58: Did you bother to read the news story?
'Lindqvist said the study found that although polar bears survived the last warming period, they have since become highly specialized to living on the Arctic ice..."Climate change may now be occurring at such an accelerated pace that we do not know if polar bears will be able to keep up", she said'
Ya, I read the article, most of it is just wishful thinking on the authors part.
Glo-Bull Warming is the biggest fraud ever perpetrated in human history.
Any warming that has happened prior to 1998 is insignificant and caused by solar radiation, not man.
Except for that Mann made hockey stick graph, what a joke, do you people want to buy a bridge?
It’s great to see good information being shared.
Great picture! Thanks for the sharing!
Post a Comment