This article discusses the traces of two Early Modern Arab figures dramatized in The Moor’s Account (2014) by Laila Lalami and Leo Africanus (1992) Amin Maalouf. Marginality, nomadism, humanism are lives Mustafa Al-Zammouri/Estebanico a black from Zammour taken as slave sold to Spanish conquistador who joined Narváez Expedition Africanus/Alhassan Alwazzan was captured pirates sent gift Pope X (...

Current consensus holds that the 3-million-year-old hominid Australopithecus africanus subsisted on fruits and leaves, much as the modern chimpanzee does. Stable carbon isotope analysis of A. africanus from Makapansgat Limeworks, South Africa, demonstrates that this early hominid ate not only fruits and leaves but also large quantities of carbon-13-enriched foods such as grasses and sedges or a...

"Candidatus Methanomassiliicoccus intestinalis" Issoire-Mx1 is a methanogenic archaeon found in the human gut and is a representative of the novel order of methanogens related to Thermoplasmatales. Its complete genome sequence is presented here.

Dental tissues provide important insights into aspects of hominid palaeobiology that are otherwise difficult to obtain from studies of the bony skeleton. Tooth enamel is formed by ameloblasts, which demonstrate daily secretory rhythms developing tissue-specific structures known as cross striations, and longer period markings called striae of Retzius. These enamel features were studied in the mo...

The volvocine algae represent an excellent model lineage in which to study evolution of female and male genders based on comparative analyses of related species. Among these species, Volvox carteri has been extensively studied as a model of an oogamous and complex organism. However, it may have unique derived features that are not present in other species of Volvox. Therefore, information regar...

We report here on the results of a new cladistic analysis of early hominid relationships. Ingroup taxa included Australopithecus afarensis, Australopithecus africanus, Australopithecus aethiopicus, Australopithecus robustus, Australopithecus boisei, Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis, Homo ergaster and Homo sapiens. Outgroup taxa included Pan troglodytes and Gorilla gorilla. Sixty craniodental char...