Trudy Myers's Blog, page 5
February 6, 2025
Neanderthals’ Mysterious Extinction
Neanderthal DNA reveals50,000-year-old viruses that could help explain their extinction. In a study ofancient Neanderthal DNA, researchers found traces of 3 viruses that causecolds, cold sores, genital warts, and cancer.
Ancient humans mighthave been responsible for spreading these bugs, but I don’t think we need toblame only homo erectus, for there were several types of ancient humansaround at the same time as Neanderthals.
Most experts think theNeanderthal species went extinct from a variety of causes, including changingclimate, low fertility rates and human interactions. As can be seen fromillnesses that swept through American Natives after the arrival of Europeansettlers, trying to recover from unfamiliar illnesses introduced by distantcousins wouldn’t have helped. Poor health can have a negative impact onsurvival.
Not only could theseancient viruses help explain the Neanderthals’ extinction, but they might helpus better understand the modern versions that still infect humans today.
About 54,000 years ago,a group of Neanderthals lived in Chagyrskaya Cave in Southern Siberia.Researchers studied the DNA data of two people from the cave to look for 3viruses: adenovirus, herpesvirus, and papillomamirus. Adenovirus can causecolds and flu, herpesviruses can cause cold sores or genital warts, and somecancers are linked to papillomavirus.
A 2021 study discoveredadenovirus in 31,600-year-old human teeth from Siberia. This more-recent studyis nearly 50,000 years old. Some experts estimate humans and Neanderthalsinterbred between 60,000 and 50,000 years ago. Besides DNA, they probably passedaround diseases.
A 2016 study suggestedthat breeding with Neanderthals may have boosted humans’ immunity to previouslyunknown diseases. But the Neanderthals may have been less lucky. A cold doesnot have to be fatal to decrease hunting efficiency or other abilities. With analready small population, getting sick might have contributed to Neanderthals’extinction roughly 40,000 years ago.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/othe...
February 1, 2025
ASD
It’s called Accumulated Stress Disorder. At least, that’swhat I call it. It’s symptoms are continued fatigue, a disinterest in doingpretty much everything, and a severe disinterest in the idea of ‘adulting’.That’s what I’ve been dealing with for a couple of weeks now.
I’ve been sleeping about 12 hours at night, and sometimes Ilay down for a 2-hr nap in the afternoon. A lot of days, 90% of my to do listfor that day gets shunted to the next day. I don’t want to drive anybody to thedoctor’s office, not even myself. I don’t want to go shopping or picking upmeds or even just leave the house.
But some things can’t be procrastinated, like doctor’sappointments, grocery shopping and picking up meds. So I do them, and when Iget home, I try taking a nap. That can help calm me down for the rest of theday, but it’s the sleeping for 12 hours that seems to help tamp down theaccumulated stress.
My counselor suggests I book one day a week as ‘Me’ time. Aday with no appointments, no errands, just me at home, writing on my latestWork in Progress. I love the idea. I have said many times that writing helps mestay sane. I used to think the weekends were ideal for this, but this weekend,I ran errands for the family on Saturday, and on Sunday, John decided he wantedto go to Walmart, so I drove him there and home again. Then I took a 2-hr napto calm down and washed the dishes. Thus, the weekend was full of adulting.
But Thursday was empty. I kept it empty so I could spend theday writing. Well, I had to adult for quite a bit of the day, but I did get 3hours of writing in the afternoon! I wrote over a thousand words, so I washappy about that.
January 11, 2025
Colorado 'swamp dweller' mammal
Working near Rangely,Colorado, paleontologists have uncovered an unknown state resident—a fossilmammal about the size of a muskrat that may have scurried through swamps duringthe Age of Dinosaurs.
They identified thecreature from a piece of jawbone and 3 molar teeth, and named it Heleocolapiceanus. It lived in Colorado roughly 70 to 75 million years ago, at a timewhen an inland sea covered large portions of the American West. “Heleocola”roughly translates to “swamp dweller” in Latin.
Said one team member, “Coloradois a great place to find fossils, but mammals from this time period tend to bepretty rare. So it’s really neat to see this slice of time preserved inColorado.”
Compared to the muchlarger dinosaurs living at the time, like tyrannosaurs or horned ancestors ofTriceratops, this new fossil might seem tiny and insignificant. But it wassurprisingly large for mammals at the time.
This discovery helpspaint a more complete picture of a Colorado that would be all butunrecognizable to residents today. Seventy million years ago, this area waswhere land met water. Creatures like turtles, duck-billed dinosaurs and giantcrocodiles may have flourished in marshes and estuaries, gorging themselves onwetland vegetation and fish.
The bit of mammal jawemerged from a slab of sandstone that was collected from the site in 2016. Thefossil measured about an inch long.
Before an asteroid killedoff the non-avian dinosaurs 66 million years ago, mammals tended to be small—aboutthe size of today’s mice or rats. They are largely identified from the tinyteeth they left behind.
In comparison, this onewas positively huge. A cousin to modern-day marsupials, this animal weighed 2 poundsor more. But it’s not quite a record. The Didelphodon, another fossil mammalfrom the same period, may have weighed as much as 11 pounds. H. piceanus’ teethindicate it dined on plants, with a few insects or small animals mixed in.
January 4, 2025
Review of a Sweet Potato Pie
I decided to trysomething new this week; review a food item. I don’t normally do this. Inormally just eat and make a mental note whether I would eat it again or not.But this was my first Sweet Potato Pie we had this holiday season, and Ithought I would try my hand at reviewing it.
I didn’t grow up withsweet potato pie being offered at the holiday table. We had sweet potatoes. Theywere cooked, mashed with brown sugar and thrown in the oven with a layer of marshmallowson top. Sort of a sweet potato casserole, I guess. And I loved that, but once Ibecame diabetic, I had to give that up.
This year, we stoppedat a store we don’t often shop at to look for a dessert, because I’d forgottento pick up dessert at our regular store. And they had plenty of pies to choosefrom; blueberry, peach, apple, cherry, sweet potato and pumpkin. I was tryingto decide between the fruit pies (I’m not a big fan of pumpkin pie), when myhusband suggested a sweet potato pie. He always says I never try anything new,so it surprised him when I agreed. He snatched up a sweet potato pie and headedfor the register.
When the time came fordessert on Christmas Day, I took a closer look at that sweet potato pie. Itlooked a lot like a pumpkin pie, only yellow, not orange. And I didn’t see anylittle specks of spice in it, like you sometimes see in a pumpkin pie. I cut itinto pieces and served it with some whipped cream.
The crust was notreally flaky, just a layer of flour crust. The whipped cream was typical, sweetand creamy foam. The filling was creamy, like the filling of a pumpkin pie, butit tasted like sweet potatoes. Like a baked sweet potato, not with the brownsugar and marshmallow sweetness of my childhood sweet potato casserole. So Iate it, but I thought it could have used some cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice,even though that would make it more like the pumpkin pie I’m not that fond of.
Would I eat it again?Probably. If it was a choice between it or pumpkin pie. Or mincemeat pie. But I’min no hurry to learn how to make it.
December 27, 2024
The Cro-Magnon People
I remember when I was ayoung girl, one of my older sisters did a project for the school science fair.She was comparing 3 types of early humans; Neanderthals, Cro-Magnons and modernhumans. I was fascinated by the display she made, and that was probably whatstarted my attraction to all things pre-historic. But people don’t speak ofCro-Magnons anymore, and I finally found out why.
Human evolution isfilled with terms and names related to past humans that can get quiteconfusing. Cro-Magnons are an example of that. They lived in Europe around thetime of the last Ice Age, from 40,000 to 10,000 years ago. They were initiallynamed after the Cro-Magnon rock shelter in France where the first of theirskeletons were discovered in the 1860s. Now, however, scientists refer to themas Early Modern Humans or Anatomically Modern Humans.
The bones of the firstCro-Magnon specimens were discovered in 1868 during road construction in theDordogne Valley in southwestern France. The remains were of 4 adults and aninfant. The rock shelter where they were found showed clear signs of occupation,including ornaments such as pendants and necklaces made from shells and animalteeth. This led researchers to believe the occupants had been deliberatelyburied in the shelter as a single grave.
Scientists compared theskeletons to those of Neanderthals that had been discovered in England andlater in France. They came to the conclusion that the Cro-Magnons were distinctenough to warrant their own designation. However, advances in anthropology andgenetics eventually established that these people were fully modern humans,indistinguishable from people today. Therefore, the term ‘Cro-Magnon’ was phasedout by the end of the 20th century, as they were recognized as partof a larger population of early modern humans who migrated across Europe, Asia,and Africa during the Upper Palaeolithic era.
Another reason why thename was changed was because ‘Cro-Magnon’ did not refer to a specific taxonomy;it was the name of a cave and was considered inappropriate for palaeontology.
The individuals foundat Cro-Magnon were anatomically similar to people living today. They had highforeheads, prominent chins and slight brow ridges. They were generally tallerthan Neanderthals, sometimes by as much as a foot. And their skeletons indicatethey lived tough, physically demanding lives.
The skull of Cro-Magnon1, an adult man found at the cave, shows signs of a fungal infection, whilesome of the others had fused vertebrae in their necks, which would have likelycome from traumatic injuries. And one of the females found at the site appearsto have lived with a fractured skull.
Despite living throughextremely difficult conditions, the ‘Cro-Magnon’ people lived in complex socialstructures. Archaeologists have recovered sophisticated tools made from bone,stone, and antlers. They also had artistic creations such as cave paintings,jewelry, decorated artifacts, and carvings. They are recognized for creating someof the earliest depictions of animals and human figures, as well as abstractpatterns.
So, it appears that,rather than being very distant relatives like the Neanderthals, the ‘Cro-Magnons’are simply a part of the human family. I can’t blame my sister for having erroneousinformation in her project, considering she put it together in the late 1950swith the best information she could find in the small town where we lived. AndI’m still fascinated with pre-history.
December 20, 2024
Armored Dinosaur had a Bulletproof Vest
Many dinosaurs reliedon plate armor to keep them safe from predators. But one went so far as to growa ‘bulletproof vest’ over its plate armor. The best-preserved dinosaur fossilon record is a type of ankylosaur called a nodosaur. The nodosaur was a herbivorethat grew 18 feet long and lived 110 to 112 million years ago. One of thesefossils was so well preserved, scientists were able to determine the strengthof its keratin plates and the bony spikes that covered them. It is estimatedthat the nodosaur could survive a crash with an F150 pickup that was going atspeed.
Usually, only the bonyspikes remained on other armored dinosaur fossils, because keratin (dead cellsthat form structures like hair and fingernails) doesn’t fossilize well. So whenpaleontologists studied armored dinosaurs in the past, they assumed the mainprotection came from the bony structures, which they thought might have beencovered by a thin layer of keratin like a turtle shell.
In 2017, anexceptionally well-preserved fossil was discovered in a mine in Alberta,Canada. The fossil was so well preserved that researchers could analyze thecolor of its armor and even look into its stomach to see its last meal.
There was a keratinlayer over the bones, but it was much thicker than anticipated. It was over 6inches thick in some places. The keratin sheath over a modern cattle horn isonly 0.6 inches thick. The keratin sheath would allow for flexibility and couldeasily be removed if it got damaged. It would be like trimming a broken nailinstead of needing to heal a broken bone.
This armor couldwithstand much more force than predators of the time could deliver, whichsuggests the armor may have been used during fights between males who werevying for female mates.
This research alsoreveals new insight into dinosaur armor in general. It is likely that otherarmored dinosaurs also had thick keratin sheaths. And those with armored andweaponized faces and heads were probably using a lot more keratin than is normallymodeled.
November 28, 2024
Saber-Toothed Kitten
In Siberia, Scientistshave recovered the mummy of a newborn saber-toothed cat from the permafrost.The kitten died at least 35,000 years ago, yet its whiskers and claws are stillattached. It is remarkable that the mummy still had sharp claws and whiskers.However, the eyelashes were not preserved.
An analysis of thekitten’s stunningly-preserved head and upper body shows it was 3 weeks old whenit died. The pelvic bones, a femur and shin bones were encased in a block ofice with the mummy. The cause of the kitten’s death is unknown.
It is extremely rare tofind well-preserved remains of saber-toothed cats. This one is of the species Homotheriumlatidens. Saber-toothed cats of the Homotherium genus lived acrossthe globe from 5.3 million to 11,700 years ago, but evidence suggests thisgroup became less widespread toward the end of the last ice age.
The latest recorded presenceof Homotherium in Eurasia was between 770,000 to 126,000 years ago. Butthe discovery of this kitten confirms its presence from 126,000 to 11,700 yearsago in Asia.
The frozen mummy showsit was well-adapted to ice age conditions. The kitten carcass was compared tothat of a modern 3-week-old lion. The saber-toothed kitten had wider paws andno carpal pads, which act as shock absorbers in today’s felines. Theseadaptations enabled walking with ease in snow, while thick, soft fur found onthe mummy shielded it against polar temperatures.
The comparison with thelion also revealed that saber-tooth cats had a larger mouth, smaller ears,longer forelimbs, darker hair and a thicker neck. Studies of adult Holotheriumskeletons had already shown that they had short bodies and elongated limbs, butthese features were already present at the age of 3 weeks.
Radiocarbon dating ofthe mummy’s fur suggested the kitten has been buried in permafrost at least35,000 years, and possibly as long as 37,000 years. The carcass was discoveredin 2020 and has enabled scientists to describe physical characteristics such asthe fur’s texture, the shape of their muzzle, and the distribution of theirmuscles.
November 23, 2024
Oldest Known Alphabet Discovered
In a groundbreakingdiscovery, researchers have found what may be the oldest known alphabeticwriting in human history. It’s dramatically older than any other alphabeticwriting, so these ancient artifacts are rewriting the history of communication.
Discovered in a tomb inwestern Syria, several delicate clay cylinders are challenging everythingscholars thought they knew about the origin of alphabetic communication. Fourfinger-length artifacts, extracted from Tell Umm-el Marra, have been dated to2400 BCE. This places them a stunning 500 years earlier than previoushistorical records.
“Alphabetsrevolutionized writing by making it accessible to people beyond royalty and thesocial elite,” said the lead archaeologist. According to him, “Alphabeticwriting changed the way people lived, how they thought, how they communicated.
The cylinders werefound among an archaeological treasure trove. Not only did the tomb contain sixskeletons, gold and silver jewelry, cookware, a spearhead, and intact pieces ofpottery. These clay cylinders appear to be labeled with what might be theearliest known alphabetic script.
It is speculated thatthese cylinders might have been used as labels, potentially identifying vesselcontents, origins, or ownership. But without a method to translate the writing,these are educated guesses.
Scholars previouslythought the alphabet was invented in Egypt sometime after 1900 BCE. But theseartifacts are older and from a different area, which suggests the alphabet mayhave a different origin story than thought.
The research team’smeticulous work included carbon-14 dating to confirm the age of the tombs,artifacts and mysterious writing, which provides scientific validation fortheir claims.
The meaning of theseancient markings is a mystery, but these artifacts offer a glimpse into how ourancestors first began to record and share information beyond spoken language.
November 18, 2024
Learning Patience While Healing
Oof! This has been abad year for me, health-wise. I had 2 stays in the hospital, one for 9 days inJuly, and the other for 7 days in September. Then I took a fall in a local mallparking lot at the end of October that resulted in 6 broken ribs. I’m lookingat 6 weeks while those heal.
Enough already! I amready to be well!
Of course, things don’twork like that. The body takes the time it needs to heal. And when the timecomes that your brain is ready to get back to doing things, but your body isn’tdone healing, guess which one wins the argument.
It wasn’t so bad when Iwas in the hospital. The first half of my stay, I was too sick to do much buteat when my meals arrived and sleep. When I did reach the point where I feltlike doing things, I never thought to have my hubby bring my laptop to mebecause I was sure I was going to be discharged any minute! And when it didn’thappen that day, I was sure it would happen the next, so I’d find somemind-numbing shows on the tv, and think about all I would do once I got home.
But cracked ribs are alittle different. You get to be at home; you just have to be careful not to aggravateyour damaged bones. And get plenty of rest. The ache of my ribs made me extratired. I found myself sleeping 9-10 hours at night and taking a nap in theafternoon. And maybe one in the morning. It left me little time to get anythingdone.
Each day, I would stareat my To Do List and cross off those things I did manage to do; take mymorning pills, check my blood sugar, check how my Amazon Ads are doing, openthe daily snail mail, brush my hair and teeth, take my evening pills… smallstuff that had to get done. And each day I would gather up all thethings I didn’t manage to do that day and shove them off until the next day.Things like write my family letter that usually gets sent out every 2ndmonth, write my weekly newsletter, write my weekly blog, format the nextmanuscript waiting to be published, ride my stationary bike for some exercise, andso on.
The first couple ofweeks after my fall, I had plenty of pain to remind me why I was sleeping somuch. “This isn’t forever,” I told myself, and so I wouldn’t beat myself upabout all that I wasn’t getting done. But as the pain subsided – and by now,it’s just a gentle ache in my ribs to remind me to take an afternoon nap – thenI find myself impatient to start doing all those things I’ve been putting off.To ignore the ache and keep working.
I could do that. Somedays I have done that. However, if I choose not to take a nap, then I am extratired extra early that evening, and I sleep even longer that night.
I have to learn to bepatient. It is no good beating myself up over my need for extra sleep. Thatjust makes me depressed, and I’m already fighting chronic depression, so Idon’t need any more of it. This won’t last forever. By mid-December, my ribswill be fully healed. That’s only a month away.
Thankfully, this pastweek has afforded me the opportunity to get some writing done; the familyletter, this week’s newsletter, this blog, and even a couple thousand words onmy current Work In Progress. Although that story has passed 10K words, so I’mnot sure it truly qualifies as a short story anymore, but we’ll see how long itgets. However, that time for writing is obtained by being away from our homefor the day, so I can’t get an afternoon nap. Here’s hoping that these daysgive me a little boost in stamina for getting through a day without a nap. Thatwould be nice.
In the meantime, I mustbe patient. Being impatient doesn’t get me anywhere.
October 24, 2024
Red Deer Cave People
The Red Deer CavePeople appear to have been some of the most unusual humans in the past 20,000years. They have been dated to have existed about 14,000 years ago, which isexceptionally recent in terms of human evolution. Yet, their fossils displaymany ‘archaic’ human features that are associated with more distant relativesin the family tree.
They might have been anancient relic of humanity that held on until the end of the last Ice Age. Orthey may have been a hybrid population, possibly related to Neanderthalsand Denisovans. Or perhaps they show that Homo sapiens wereextremely diverse throughout their history.
In 1989, human remainswere unearthed at a cave in Yunnan, southern Chine. It became known at the RedDeer Cave because of the discovery of giant red deer fossils at the site. It isbelieved the human inhabitants cooked and ate the animals.
In 2012, scientistsspeculated whether the people in the cave represented a new human species. Bystudying their jaws and teeth, it was noted they had thick skulls with flatfaces, broad noses, small chines, large molar teeth and prominent brow ridges,all features associated with older, long-extinct members of the human familytree.
The scientists haddiscovered a population of prehistoric humans whose skulls display an unusualmosaic of primitive features, like those seen in our ancestors thousands ofyears ago.
A 2015 study of a thighbone discovered at Red Deer Cave suggested that individual weighed about 110pounds (50 kilograms) and shared anatomical features with early Homo erectusor Homo habilis, both of which went extinct about 1.5 million years ago.
Since the femur wasdated at just 14,000 years old, this did not fit the widely accepted chronologyof human evolution. This femur was part of a living person a few thousand yearsbefore Homo sapiens developed agriculture, which sparked an evolution ofculture that ultimately gave rise to complex civilizations.
It suggests thatprimitive-looking humans might have survived until very late in our evolution.But it is just one bone. A pre-modern species may have overlapped in withmodern humans on mainland East Asia, but that case needs to be built with morebone discoveries.
By 2022, advancementsin ancient DNA allowed a study of Red Deer Cave hominins’ genetics. Itconfirmed that they were modern Homo sapiens. In fact, they had asignificant genetic connection to modern East Asians and Native Americans, whodescended from the same groups of people.
So the Red Deer CavePeople were not as unusual as first thought, even though the small populationdid have features not seen in any modern population of humans. With no clearexplanation why they appeared this way, it hints that humans living towards theend of the last Ice Age were more diverse than those living across the worldtoday.
