New paper: defining dwarfing rate of an extinct dwarf elephant!

We used ancient DNA from an extinct Sicilian to define its dwarfing rates. Mediterranean dwarf elephants are small-bodied descendants from one of the largest land mammals ever lived! Using ancient DNA, palaeontological and geochronological evidence to define the maximum and minimum dwarfing rate of a Sicilian dwarf elephant from Puntali cave. Published in Current Biology: …

New paper: ancient DNA from museum wet collection specimens!

We extracted DNA from a range of wet collection samples, and show the success of this approach to open the DNA archive of museum wet collections! Published in Molecular Ecology Resources: Straube, N., Lyra, M. L., Paijmans, J. L. A., Preick, M., Basler, N., Penner, J., Rödel, M.-O., Westbury, M. V., Haddad, C. F. B., …

New paper on defensive venom in cobras!

Axel was part of a team investigating pain-inducing defensive venom in cobras! Check out the paper, published in Science: Kazandjian TD, Petras D, Robinson SD, Thiel J van, Greene HW, Arbuckle K, Barlow A, Carter DA, Wouters RM, Whiteley G, Wagstaff SC, Arias AS, Albulescu L-O, Laing AP, Hall C, Heap A, Penrhyn-Lowe S, McCabe …

New paper on Middle Pleistocene cave bear!

We sequenced a Middle Pleistocene cave bear about 360,000 years old! Published in Current Biology: Barlow A, Paijmans JLA, Alberti F, Gasparyan B, Bar-Oz G, Pinhasi R, Foronova I, Puzachenko AY, Pacher M, Dalén L, Baryshnikov G, Hofreiter M (2021) Middle Pleistocene genome calibrates a revised evolutionary history of extinct cave bears. Current Biology, in …

New paper on leopard genomes!

We sequenced leopard genomes from all over their distribution, and found a striking genomic distinction between African and Asian leopards! Check out the results, published in Current Biology: Paijmans JLA, Barlow A, Becker MS, Cahill JA, Fickel J, Förster DWG, Gries K, Hartmann S, Havmøller RW, Henneberger K, Kern C, Kitchener AC, Lorenzen ED, Mayer …