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: …
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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., …
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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 …
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 …
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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 …
We were part of an international team recovering DNA from museum samples of Asian linsangs. Check out the results in the paper, published in PLoS ONE! Paijmans JLA, Barlow A, Henneberger K, Fickel J, Hofreiter M, Foerster DWG (2020) Ancestral mitogenome capture of the Southeast Asian banded linsang. PLoS ONE. 15(6): e0234385. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234385
We were part of an international team recovering mitochondrial sequences from South American frog museum specimens. This data helped resolve long-standing questions on the taxonomy of the group! Check out: Lyra ML, Lourenço ACC, Pinheiro PDP, Pezzuti TL, Baêta D, Barlow A, Hofreiter M, Pombal José PJR, Haddad CFB, Faivovich J (2020) High-throughput DNA sequencing …
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We were on the team finally solving the puzzle of the unusual isotopic signals in Romanian cave bears: they were herbivorous after all! New paper published in Scientific Reports: Naito YI, Meleg IN, Robu M, Vlaicu M, Drucker DG, Wißing C, Hofreiter M, Barlow A, Bocherens H (2020) Heavy reliance on plants for Romanian cave …
We were part of the team presenting the first palaeogenomes from extinct Pleistocene cave hyenas, and uncovering their relationship to modern hyenas. Check ou tthe new paper in the current issue of Science Advances! https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/11/eaay0456 And a write up on physorg: https://phys.org/news/2020-03-prehistoric-hyenas-humans-migration-patterns.html
We were part of an International Team working on the phylogenetics of the extinct giant beaver, including Prof. Hofreiter’s team at Uni Potsdam and researchers at the Joseph Moore Museum, Earlham College. Check out our results, published in the latest issue of Current Biology! https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982219316744?dgcid=author Also write up and excellent video from Earlham College! https://earlham.edu/news/article/?id=70872&r=40315&title=research-group-sequences-dna-of-long-extinct-giant-beaver
Pleistocene Genomics Lab