̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Department of Biological Anthropology

Celebrating Cambridge’s LGBT+ scientists and engineers

cjb250 — Wed, 04 Jul 2018 23:00:09 +0000

To mark the event, the ̽��ֱ�� has released a film in which staff and researchers from the ̽��ֱ��, AstraZeneca and the Wellcome Genome Campus discuss their experiences of being LGBT+ in Cambridge – and why it is important to be who you are.

"While we have witnessed an increase in inclusion and equality efforts in STEM organisations and companies, we have to recognise the many challenges individuals continue to face, especially members of the LGBT+ community," said Dr Alfredo Carpineti, founder of Pride in STEM and one of the organisers of the initiative. “That's why we launched LGBTSTEM Day. We hope for this to be a day of celebration, of reflection, and of engagement. LGBTSTEM Day is part of the global push to increase the visibility of minorities in STEM fields.”

̽��ֱ��celebrations highlight the need for more role models to help enable LGBT+ scientists and engineers to be able to express themselves and to encourage others to consider a career in STEM. As Dr Sara El-Gebali, Scientific Database Curator at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) says in the film: “Sadly there are very few [LGBT role models in science]. It’s not because we’re not here, it’s because we’re not seen. We’re not officially here.”

Anna Langley, Computer Officer at Cambridge’s ̽��ֱ�� Information Services, was one of the founding members of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s LGBT+ Staff Network. She works in an environment where diversity is a problem, but says that things that are changing.

“Working in IT is still a very straight, white, male, cis environment,” she says. “But generally, I think that the university is trying to do the right thing in terms of diversity. It’s trying to ensure that people are treated fairly regardless of their background, their gender identity, their sexuality.”

Having a supportive work environment is essential in helping staff both personally and professionally, says Christopher Fox, Associate Scientist at AstraZeneca/MedImmune: “I don’t think I’d be as confident as I am at work if I didn’t have people around me who were openly gay or openly lesbian, people who are happy to be themselves. It made me feel that I can be myself.”

Elizabeth Wynn, Advanced Research Assistant at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, adds: “I think it’s important to be who you are, to be able to live as your authentic self, because you’re never going to be truly happy or productive or complete if you’re trying to silence or hide some part of yourself.”

For Langley, being ‘out’ at work is important not just for oneself, but to support others. “If you’re not visible as someone who’s LGB or T, intersexual, queer, non-binary, whatever, then you’re making it that little bit harder for other people to be open about their experience too, […] to be comfortable in their skin in the working environment.”

̽��ֱ��film’s contributors all describe Cambridge as being a very positive, open city in which to live and work.

“There’s a real emphasis on ‘it’s what you can bring to the table in STEM rather than who you are’,” says Fox. “It’s about what you can achieve, not what your sexuality is.”

Michael Rivera, a PhD student in the Department of Biological Anthropology, agrees: “With such a diverse, knowledgeable population in Cambridge, I think it’s very likely that you will find many friends to make here with common interests to you. You will find lots of allies who are open to different backgrounds and different sexualities – and maybe you’ll even find someone very special to spend time with!”

For Dr El-Gebali, her move to Cambridge has made a huge difference to her life. “Being in Cambridge has helped me to come out, not just to my friends and family, but also to work,” she says. “It’s the first time in my long career when I can officially say ‘Yeah, here I am and I’m not the only one’. Cambridge has been really, really good to me.”

This year, staff and students from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, Cambridge Assessment and Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Press, marched together as they joined thousands of others in the parade at Pride London on Saturday 7 July. AstraZeneca and scientists from the Wellcome Sanger Institute also marched together as part of the Proud Science Alliance group.

Cambridge celebrated the first ever LGBTSTEM Day on 5 July – recognising all those who work in science, technology, engineering and medicine and who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other minority gender identities and sexual orientations.

I think that the university is trying to do the right thing in terms of diversity. It’s trying to ensure that people are treated fairly regardless of their background, their gender identity, their sexuality

Anna Langley

Celebrating Cambridge’s LGBT+ scientists and engineers

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

Final biomedical trial on captive chimpanzees is first oral Ebola vaccine for saving wild apes

fpjl2 — Thu, 09 Mar 2017 12:06:41 +0000

̽��ֱ��results from the final biomedical research trial on captive chimpanzees for the foreseeable future have been published today in the journal Scientific Reports.

̽��ֱ��trial was of a vaccination for Ebola: the first orally administered vaccine for any disease developed specifically for the purpose of conserving wild apes.

In addition to poaching and forest loss, diseases such as Ebola and anthrax have devastated wild ape populations. Ebola alone is estimated to have killed one third of the world’s wild gorillas over the last three decades.

Now, new findings have shown an effective oral vaccine for Ebola in chimpanzees, and that the captive animals involved in the trial exhibited very few signs of stress as a result. Researchers say the work demonstrates a model that could be harnessed for other diseases and ape species in the wild.

However, after decades using chimpanzees to test vaccines destined for humans, changes in the law have seen enforced retirement of captive populations and the closing of chimpanzee research facilities in the US – the last developed country where biomedical testing on chimpanzees was legal.

In what researchers describe as a “horrible irony”, they say these reforms – a victory for long-standing campaigns by animal welfare groups – will ultimately prove detrimental to chimpanzees and gorillas in the wild, as any vaccination for wild animals must be tested in captivity first to ensure its safety.

Consequently, the promising new vaccine model may never progress to the point where it can be used to inoculate endangered wild apes, say the research team from the universities of Cambridge, UK, and Thomas Jefferson and Louisiana, US.

“In 2014 the world was gripped by fears of an Ebola virus pandemic. Yet few people realise that Ebola has already inflicted pandemic scale mortality on our closest relatives,” says lead researcher Dr Peter Walsh from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

“African apes are also threatened by naturally occurring pathogens like anthrax, and the increasing overspill of human pathogens such as measles. A glimmer of hope lies in the fact that many of the disease threats are now vaccine preventable.

“We have developed a very promising tool for inoculating ape species against the myriad deadly diseases they face in the wild, but continued progress relies on access to a small number of captive animals.

“This may be the final vaccine trial on captive chimpanzees: a serious setback for efforts to protect our closest relatives from the pathogens that push them ever closer to extinction in the wild.”

Previous attempts to vaccinate wild apes have resorted to administering individual animals with hypodermic darts – a laborious task feasible for only a small number of apes habituated to human approach. By contrast, oral vaccines encased in appealingly edible baits could be distributed across wild ape territories to inoculate large numbers over longer periods.

Such an approach has already proved successful in other species: almost eliminating fox rabies (and the consequent need to cull foxes) across continental Europe.

̽��ֱ��latest study was carried out with ten chimpanzees in one of the last remaining chimpanzee research facilities in the US in New Iberia, Louisiana. Six received the oral vaccine, while four were injected as a control group.

All the animals displayed a robust immunity without side effects after 28 days – when the trial was terminated due to new Endangered Species Act regulations banning biomedical research on chimpanzees.

Throughout the trial, scientists closely monitored animal behaviour and physiology for signs of severe stress. Other than very minor weight loss (2% of body mass), they say that signs of trauma were “entirely absent”.

“Some pressure groups argue that all research on captive chimpanzees is tantamount to torture, not just because of procedures but also due to confinement,” says Walsh.

“Enclosures and animal care are now of a very high standard, with chimpanzees housed in large social spaces. ̽��ֱ��modest traces of stress we detected during our trial were akin to the values observed in college students anticipating exams.”

Captive chimpanzee trials are technically still legal in the US in instances that benefit the species. However, Walsh says that the limited funds available for conservation research makes it unviable for biomedical facilities to retain populations, while zoos and sanctuaries are either “ideologically opposed” or unwilling to risk any public backlash from testing.

Further work to enhance the vaccine, such as ensuring effectiveness after exposure to high tropical forest temperatures, may now never get done due to the closure of captive chimpanzee facilities.

“In an ideal world, there would be no need for captive chimpanzees,” says Walsh. “But this is not an ideal world. It is a world where diseases such as Ebola, along with rampant commercial poaching and habitat loss, are major contributors to rapidly declining wild ape populations.

“Oral vaccines offer a real opportunity to slow this decline. ̽��ֱ��major ethical debt we owe is not to a few captive animals, but to the survival of an entire species we are destroying in the wild: our closest relatives.”

Oral vaccine offers hope for ape species ravaged by Ebola and other diseases, as it can be widely dispersed to save more wild animals. However, scientists say recent law changes on captive chimpanzee testing may stop the conservation work in its tracks.

This may be the final vaccine trial on captive chimpanzees: a serious setback for efforts to protect our closest relatives from the pathogens that push them ever closer to extinction in the wild

Peter Walsh

Matthias Schnell

One of the captive chimpanzees in the research trial receiving the oral Ebola vaccination

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Sharpening our knowledge of prehistory on East Africa’s bone harpoons

tdk25 — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 09:00:20 +0000

East Africa is the epicentre of human evolution and its archaeological remains offer the potential to fill gaps in our understanding of early modern humans from their earliest origins, around 200,000 years ago, through to the most ‘recent’ prehistory of the last 10,000 years.

̽��ֱ��In Africa project, directed by Dr Marta Mirazón Lahr, co-founder of the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, is seeking to do exactly that. ̽��ֱ��group believes that, in East Africa, key ecological and cultural conditions converged, which allowed modern humans to evolve new behaviours and technologies to better exploit the natural resources that they found around them.

For the past five years, they has been working on the palaeoshores of Lake Turkana in Kenya, which has offered significant insights into how people there made use of aquatic resources such as fish or shellfish, something which is seen as a marker of human modernity.

Dr Alex Wilshaw, in Cambridge's Department of Biological Anthropology and a fellow of St John’s College, is a Research Associate on the project. “Looking at prehistoric tools and technology is a key way of exploring when and how the cultural and behavioural traits associated with modern humans were developed,” he explains.

“ ̽��ֱ��area around Lake Turkana is extraordinarily rich not just in fossils, but also in artefacts used to exploit the ecology of the area. In the case of aquatic resources from the lake, these artefacts are often harpoons or points made from bone. While previous archaeological projects have led to pockets of harpoon discovery, the extent of this project has afforded us the opportunity to collect unprecedented numbers of bone harpoons – to date, we have over 500 from 20 different sites.”

Mirazón Lahr and Wilshaw are now preparing a monograph cataloguing and describing the harpoons to give a clearer picture of the diversity that exists within the collection.

“Together, the harpoons have the potential to offer a spatial and temporal cross-section of the activities of early modern humans in the area and tell us something about functional and stylistic changes in technology,” Wilshaw says. “ ̽��ֱ��sites contain artefacts from groups who lived at different times and if we look at the harpoons in detail, their distinct styles show signs of variation among different populations and could offer clues about the appearance and disappearance of diverse groups as the lake levels rose and fell over time.”

̽��ֱ��harpoons range in date from around 13,000 years ago – late in the geological epoch known as the Pleistocene – to around 6,000 years ago, the middle of the current geological epoch known as the Holocene. ̽��ֱ��researchers used radiocarbon and other dating techniques on samples of shell and sediment surrounding the harpoons to place them in time.

While some of the harpoons were sharpened into elongated spears or barbed points, others look more like hooks. Some have been decorated and polished. “There is some discussion over what the harpoons were used for, but we think it is likely to have been fishing, rather than hunting of land animals, as they were all discovered on the lake edge,” Wilshaw explains. “ ̽��ֱ��harpoons would have been attached to a pole or haft and connected using twine or string which then enabled the hunter-fishers to spear their prey and then pull in their catch. There are some huge species of fish native to this area and some of the bigger and thicker harpoons may have been used to catch species like Nile Perch, which can grow up to two metres long. It is possible that the groups were using them to hunt hippo, which were also common in the area.”

̽��ֱ��research team focused their efforts on recovering remains from across an extensive landscape exhibiting the remnants of the lake edge and its surrounding flood plain. Many animal and human remains were fossilised and preserved in mud and sediment on the shores of the lake, but as the lake shrank and the environment became increasingly dry, the wind and rain eroded the surface and exposed the fossils.

This phenomenon led the group to the discovery not just of the bone harpoons, but also of many other prehistoric human remains and artefacts. Published last year in Nature, such fossilised bones protruding from the earth led to the remarkable discovery of the remains of a group of hunter gatherers who were brutally massacred around 10,000 years ago at the site of Nataruk – the earliest record of inter-group violence among prehistoric nomadic people.

̽��ֱ��researchers are hoping to win further funding to unlock more of the secrets of East Africa’s prehistoric harpoons.

“Some appear to have been carved from bone, some from ivory and others from horn, but we would like to do a more detailed analysis of what they were made out of and whether there was a preference for material,” adds Wilshaw. “Searching for patterns in functionality could reveal whether design and material varied for different prey and how creative the people were being with technology. Interestingly, some of the harpoons also look as if they have been polished and residue analysis could tell us what people were using to care for their tools”

̽��ֱ��In Africa project, which was funded by the European Research Council, aims to use its fossils and archaeological discoveries to enhance international awareness of the role of Africa in the evolution of human diversity.

“ ̽��ֱ��harpoons are the iconic remains of a people who have disappeared,” says Mirazón Lahr, “when they lived, Lake Turkana was much larger and the environment much richer. These discoveries allow us to track their lives, from when the lake rose as the ice age ended to the point where the lake shrank and desert conditions set in – bringing an end to the tradition that had lasted thousands of years and about which very little was previously known.”

Inset images from the In Africa project.

To keep up to date with the latest stories about Cambridge’s engagement with Africa, follow #CamAfrica on Twitter.

A project exploring the role of East Africa in the evolution of modern humans has amassed the largest and most diverse collection of prehistoric bone harpoons ever assembled from the area. ̽��ֱ��collection offers clues about the behaviour and technology of prehistoric hunter-gatherers.

"There are some huge species of fish native to this area and some of the bigger and thicker harpoons may have been used to catch species like Nile Perch, which can grow up to two metres long."

Alex Wilshaw

Harpoons discovered by the In Africa project

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Opinion: How we discovered infectious diseases in 2,000-year-old faeces from the Silk Road

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Jul 2016 14:17:31 +0000

Once travelled by famous historical figures such as Marco Polo and Genghis Khan, the Silk Road was a hugely important network of transport routes connecting eastern China with Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe. It came to prominence during the Chinese Han Dynasty (202 BC to AD 220) and remained a key transport route for the following 2,000 years.

Given that the Silk Road was a melting pot of people, it is no wonder that researchers have suggested that it might have been responsible for the spread of diseases such as bubonic plague, anthrax and leprosy between China and Europe. However, no one one has yet found any evidence to show how diseases in eastern China reached Europe. Travellers might have spread these diseases taking a southerly route via India and the Middle East, or a northerly route via Mongolia and Russia.

But our team, including researchers at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and China’s Academy of Social Sciences and Gansu Institute for Cultural Relics and Archaeology, has now found the earliest evidence for the spread of infectious disease organisms along the Silk Road. ̽��ֱ��results have been published in the Journal of Archaeological Science Reports.

Extent of Silk Route/Silk Road. Red is land route and the blue is the sea/water route. NASA/wikimedia

We investigated latrines at the Xuanquanzhi relay station, a fortified stopping point along the Silk Road that was built in 111 BC and used until 109 AD. It is located at Dunhuang, at the eastern end of the Tamrin Basin, an arid region that contacts the fearsome Taklamakan Desert. When the latrines were excavated, the archaeologists found sticks with cloth wrapped around one end (see lead image). These have been described in ancient Chinese texts of the period as a personal hygiene tool for wiping the anus after going to the toilet. Some of the cloth had a dark solid material still adhered to it after all this time.

Faeces under the microscope

We realised that this material was faeces when we looked at it with a high-powered optical microscope. We also found the eggs of four species of parasitic intestinal worms in it. This may seem surprising but the eggs of many species of intestinal worms are very tough and may survive thousands of years in the ground. This indicates that some of the people using this latrine 2,000 years ago were infected with parasites. ̽��ֱ��species included roundworm (Ascaris lumbricoides), whipworm (Trichuris trichiura), Taenia sp. tapeworm (likely T. solium, T. asiatica or T. solium) and Chinese liver fluke (Clonorchis sinensis).

Roundworm and whipworm are parasites found right across the world in the past and indicate poor personal hygiene, as the worms are spread by the contamination of food and hands by human faeces. Taenia sp. tapeworm is spread by eating raw or undercooked meat such as pork and beef, and again has been found across large areas of the world in the past.

Meanwhile, Chinese liver fluke – which can cause abdominal pain, diarrhoea, jaundice and liver cancer – is only found in regions of eastern and southern China and Korea, as it has a complex life cycle. It is restricted to areas with wet marshy countryside, as the parasite must pass through the intermediate hosts of a water snail and freshwater fish before it can infect humans. ̽��ֱ��humans have to eat the fish raw if it is to infect them. In modern times, the closest area to Dunhuang where Chinese liver fluke is found is 1,500km away, and the region where most cases of infection are found is 2,000km away.

Egg of Chinese liver fluke discovered in the latrine at Xuanquanzhi, viewed using microscopy. Dimensions 29 x 16 micrometers. ̽��ֱ��Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports., CC BY

Discovering evidence for Chinese liver fluke at a latrine in the arid region of Dunhuang was really exciting. ̽��ֱ��parasite could not possibly be endemic in that region as there are no marshy areas needed for its life cycle. Instead, it shows that a person who became infected with the liver fluke in eastern or southern China was able to travel the huge distance to this relay station along the Silk Road – at least 1,500km.

Our finding suggests that we now know for sure that the Silk Road was responsible for spreading infectious diseases in ancient times. This makes more likely previous proposals that bubonic plague, leprosy and anthrax could also have been spread along it.

Piers Mitchell, Affiliated Lecturer in Biological Anthropology, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

This article was originally published on ̽��ֱ��Conversation. Read the original article.

̽��ֱ��opinions expressed in this article are those of the individual author(s) and do not represent the views of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

Piers Mitchell (Department of Biological Anthropology) discusses what we can learn from rummaging around in 2,000-year-old toilets.

Hui-Yuan Yeh

2,000-year-old personal hygiene sticks with remains of cloth, excavated from the latrine at Xuanquanzhi

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Infant bodies were ‘prized’ by 19th century anatomists, study suggests

fpjl2 — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 07:23:45 +0000

A new study of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge anatomy collection suggests that the bodies of foetuses and babies were a “prized source of knowledge” by British scientists of the 18th and 19th centuries, and were dissected more commonly than previously thought and quite differently to adult cadavers.

Historical research combined with the archaeological assessment of collection specimens shows that foetus and infant cadavers were valued for the study of growth and development, and were often kept in anatomical museums.

Researchers say that socio-cultural factors and changes in the law, as well as the spread of infectious disease during the industrial revolution, dictated the availability of these small bodies for dissection.

̽��ֱ��study, conducted by Jenna Dittmar and Piers Mitchell from Cambridge’s Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, is the first to look specifically at how British scientists investigated the changing anatomy of childhood during the 1800s. ̽��ֱ��findings are published today in the Journal of Anatomy.

̽��ֱ��researchers undertook studies of the skeletal collection retained from the former dissecting room of Cambridge’s department of anatomy, with specimen dates ranging from 1768 to 1913.

While the bodies of adults typically underwent a craniotomy - opening of the top of the skull using a saw - the researchers found that anatomists generally kept the skulls of foetuses and young children in one piece. From a total of 54 foetal and infant specimens in the collection, just one had undergone a craniotomy.

Careful study of the bone surface revealed that soft tissues had been gently removed using knives and brushes in order to preserve as much of the bones of the head as possible, although surgical instruments would have been similar to those used on the fully-grown. Tools for other purposes in adults, such as ‘bone nipper’ forceps, were likely used for dividing diminutive ribcages.

̽��ֱ��research suggests that anatomists kept the skeletal remains of foetuses and infants for further study and use as teaching aids, whereas adults were frequently reburied after dissection.

“Foetal and infant bodies were clearly valued by anatomists, illustrated by the measures taken to preserve the remains intact and undamaged,” says Dittmar.

“ ̽��ֱ��skulls appear to have been intentionally spared to preserve them for teaching or display. This may explain why so few children with signs of dissection on their bones have been recovered from the burial grounds of hospitals or parish churches, compared with adults.”

Literature from the late 18th century shows that the size of infant bodies made them preferable for certain ‘anatomical preparations’ in teaching, particularly for illuminating the anatomy of the nervous and circulatory systems, which required an entire body to be injected with coloured wax and displayed.

“ ̽��ֱ��valuable and unique knowledge that could only be obtained from the examination of these developing bodies made them essential to the study of anatomy,” says Dittmar.

“During much of the 18th and 19th century, executed criminals provided the main legal access to cadavers, and it was previously thought that dissection of young children was relatively rare. However, changes in the law may have resulted in infant dissections becoming more common.”

̽��ֱ��Murder Act in 1752 gave the judiciary power to allow executed murderers - almost entirely men - to be used for medical dissection. These felons hardly made a dent in the growing demand for bodies, and a black market flourished.

Bodies acquired (often grave robbed) by gangs of ‘resurrectionists’, or body-snatchers, were usually sold by the inch, so those of infants were not very profitable, although there are records of ‘smalls’ being traded.

̽��ֱ��Anatomy Act of 1832 allowed workhouses and hospitals to donate the bodies of the poor if unclaimed by family, in an attempt to abate the resurrectionists. Infectious diseases such as cholera and tuberculosis were common killers during the industrial revolution, and a major cause of infant death in hospitals and beyond. Workhouses were desperate places, and nearly always lethal to infants.

Until 1838, a legal loophole did not require a stillborn baby to be registered, and a body could be easily sold to an anatomist through an intermediary. But the New Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 may have had the most significant repercussions of any law for infant material in anatomy collections, say the researchers.

̽��ֱ��Act ended parish relief for unmarried women and the availability of assistance from the father of an illegitimate child. Part of Victorian society’s attempt to curtail the illegitimate birth rate, the law succeeded only in contributing to dire situations for poor unwed women, mainly in service positions, who fell pregnant.

“This left very few options for these women: the workhouse, prostitution, abortion and infanticide - all of which were life-threatening,” says Mitchell. By the 1860s, infanticide in England had reached epidemic proportions.

“Our research shows that the major sources of the bodies of very young children were from stillborn babies of destitute mothers, babies who died from infectious diseases, those dying in charitable hospitals, and unmarried mothers who secretly murdered their new-born to avoid the social stigma of single parenthood,” says Mitchell.

“Poor and desperate women at the time of the industrial revolution could not only save the cost of a funeral by passing their child’s body to an anatomist, but also be paid as well. This money would help feed poor families, so the misfortune of one life lost could help their siblings to survive tough times.”

Top inset image: the only foetal skull in the Cambridge to have undergone a craniotomy.

A study of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge anatomy collection dating from the 1700s and 1800s shows how the bodies of stillborn foetuses and babies were valued for research into human development, and preserved as important teaching aids.

Foetal and infant bodies were clearly valued by anatomists, illustrated by the measures taken to preserve the remains intact and undamaged

Jenna Dittmar

Dissected foetal skull dating from the 1800s, originally held in the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Anatomy Museum

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Monkeys regulate metabolism to cope with environment and rigours of mating season

fpjl2 — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 08:28:06 +0000

New research on male Barbary macaques indicates that these primates have a flexible metabolic physiology which helps them survive by changing the speed of chemical reactions within their bodies, and consequently levels of energy, depending on temperature and availability of food.

̽��ֱ��study also suggests that the metabolic rate of male macaques spikes dramatically during mating season, potentially providing a higher "aerobic capacity" at a point when males mate with multiple females a day, as well as fight other males for mating opportunities.

Levels of thyroid hormones start to build around a month before mating season, with these metabolism-predicting hormones doubling in some animals at the peak of the season. This is only the second time that changes in metabolic physiology in the run up to mating season have been seen in a vertebrate, the first being in house sparrows.

̽��ֱ��natural habitat of Barbary macaques, in the mountains of Morocco and Algeria, is one of the most extreme environments in which any non-human primate lives.

Temperatures in winter drop as low as -5 degrees centigrade, with deep snow covering the ground for months at a time. Summer temperatures can reach 40 degrees, with food and water becoming scarce.

Researchers say that the metabolic flexibility they have observed in macaques may be an echo in one of our primate cousins of a vital physiological mechanism that has allowed humans to adapt to the planet's extreme climates – from Saharan deserts to the Arctic.

"Barbary macaques increase and decrease cellular activity and energy consumption in order to respond to challenges of climate, sustenance and reproduction. In a sense, what happens at a macro level – animal behaviour – is reflected at a micro, cellular level," said lead author Dr Jurgi Cristóbal-Azkarate of Cambridge's Division of Biological Anthropology, who conducted the research with colleagues from the universities of Roehampton and Lincoln.

"Understanding the rules and mechanisms that govern key decisions such as energy allocation in existing primates is important in gaining insight into how our ancestors were able to thrive outside tropical Africa," he said.

"Our knowledge of traits that allowed hominins to adapt to new climatic conditions is practically restricted to those that leave a traceable fossil record. We currently have a very limited understanding of the importance of physiological mechanisms in human evolution. ̽��ֱ��Barbary macaques in the Atlas Mountains are an ideal model to help address this knowledge gap."

̽��ֱ��new findings are published today in the journal Biology Letters.

By collecting faeces dropped by the animals and analysing the samples, the researchers were able to assess levels of the thyroid hormone T3, which is known to provide an indicator of the 'basal' metabolic rate: the amount of energy expended to keep a body at rest.

̽��ֱ��thyroid has been shown to affect metabolism across multiple species, including humans, in whom underactive thyroids slow metabolic rates and can cause tiredness, weight gain and depression.

Samples were taken across a nine month period from adult males in two groups – one which has nearly half their food supplied by tourists, and one which has to rely only on the natural diet of foraging for plants and insects.

On average, the monkeys fed by tourists had levels of T3 that were 10% higher, suggesting that those on the natural diet had to conserve energy as well as forage for food. T3 levels also increased the longer animals in both groups had to spend foraging for food. This is in line with other findings in vertebrates showing that they reduce secretion of thyroid hormones to reduce metabolic rates and save energy when "nutritionally stressed".

As the area's climate went through its dramatic seasonal shifts, so too did the macaque metabolism. T3 levels dropped markedly from June to August, then began to rise as mating season approached in the early Autumn. While T3 dropped again after mating season, the levels stayed much higher during the harsh winter months.

"All mammals, and even more so primates, share a common physiology," said Cristóbal-Azkarate. "As with humans, Barbary macaques increase T3 production in winter. Metabolic rates increase in response to lower temperatures as a mechanism to generate more energy and consequently more heat."

Even rain affected T3 and metabolic rates, which increased in wet weather. Researchers say this may show the "high thermoregulatory cost of wet fur".

̽��ֱ��effect of the mating season on the macaques' T3 levels, and consequently their metabolic rates, was highly significant. At the height of the season, T3 levels of the males increased by an average of 80% between both groups. ̽��ֱ��average T3 increase in the wild feeding group was 98%.

"This was an unexpected and interesting finding, suggesting that males boost their metabolism in preparation for the energetic challenges both of mating and of competing with other males for access to females," said Cristóbal-Azkarate.

"Thyroid hormones are essential for sexual development and reproductive function in mammals – there is an important increase in T3 production during puberty, for example.

"To date, studies of male reproductive competition have focused almost exclusively on testosterone and stress hormones. However, our study suggests that there is a new player in the field of male reproductive competition: the thyroid, and metabolic rate."

Added Cristóbal-Azkarate: "This is the first time in which the effects of climate, nutrition and reproductive competition on thyroid hormone physiology have been studied simultaneously, in a naturalistic setting.

"By doing this, we have been able to learn about the way in which the flexibility of the metabolic physiology of Barbary macaques allows these primates – and perhaps other species, including humans – to balance the multiple energetic demands of their harsh and highly variable environment, and cope with ecological and social challenges."

̽��ֱ��flexible physiology of Barbary macaques in responding to extreme environmental conditions of their natural habitat may help shed light on the mechanisms that allowed our ancestors to thrive outside Africa, say researchers. New study also presents the first evidence for male primates boosting their metabolic physiology for mating.

Understanding the rules and mechanisms that govern key decisions such as energy allocation in existing primates is important in gaining insight into how our ancestors were able to thrive outside tropical Africa

Jurgi Cristóbal-Azkarate

NHK photo by Michael J. Sanderson/Ateles Films

Barbary Macaques in their natural habitat of the Atlas Mountains

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Neanderthals may have been infected by diseases carried out of Africa by humans, say researchers

fpjl2 — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 08:23:09 +0000

A new study suggests that Neanderthals across Europe may well have been infected with diseases carried out of Africa by waves of anatomically modern humans, or Homo sapiens. As both were species of hominin, it would have been easier for pathogens to jump populations, say researchers. This might have contributed to the demise of Neanderthals.

Researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Oxford Brookes have reviewed the latest evidence gleaned from pathogen genomes and DNA from ancient bones, and concluded that some infectious diseases are likely to be many thousands of years older than previously believed.

There is evidence that our ancestors interbred with Neanderthals and exchanged genes associated with disease. There is also evidence that viruses moved into humans from other hominins while still in Africa. So, the researchers argue, it makes sense to assume that humans could, in turn, pass disease to Neanderthals, and that – if we were mating with them – we probably did.

Dr Charlotte Houldcroft, from Cambridge’s Division of Biological Anthropology, says that many of the infections likely to have passed from humans to Neanderthals – such as tapeworm, tuberculosis, stomach ulcers and types of herpes – are chronic diseases that would have weakened the hunter-gathering Neanderthals, making them less fit and able to find food, which could have catalysed extinction of the species.

“Humans migrating out of Africa would have been a significant reservoir of tropical diseases,” says Houldcroft. “For the Neanderthal population of Eurasia, adapted to that geographical infectious disease environment, exposure to new pathogens carried out of Africa may have been catastrophic.”

“However, it is unlikely to have been similar to Columbus bringing disease into America and decimating native populations. It’s more likely that small bands of Neanderthals each had their own infection disasters, weakening the group and tipping the balance against survival,” says Houldcroft.

New techniques developed in the last few years mean researchers can now peer into the distant past of modern disease by unravelling its genetic code, as well as extracting DNA from fossils of some of our earliest ancestors to detect traces of disease.

In a paper published today in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Houldcroft, who also studies modern infections at Great Ormond Street Hospital, and Dr Simon Underdown, a researcher in human evolution from Oxford Brookes ̽��ֱ��, write that genetic data shows many infectious diseases have been “co-evolving with humans and our ancestors for tens of thousands to millions of years”.

̽��ֱ��longstanding view of infectious disease is that it exploded with the dawning of agriculture some 8,000 years ago, as increasingly dense and sedentary human populations coexisted with livestock, creating a perfect storm for disease to spread. ̽��ֱ��researchers say the latest evidence suggests disease had a much longer “burn in period” that pre-dates agriculture.

In fact, they say that many diseases traditionally thought to be ‘zoonoses’, transferred from herd animals into humans, such as tuberculosis, were actually transmitted into the livestock by humans in the first place.

“We are beginning to see evidence that environmental bacteria were the likely ancestors of many pathogens that caused disease during the advent of agriculture, and that they initially passed from humans into their animals,” says Houldcroft.

“Hunter-gatherers lived in small foraging groups. Neanderthals lived in groups of between 15-30 members, for example. So disease would have broken out sporadically, but have been unable to spread very far. Once agriculture came along, these diseases had the perfect conditions to explode, but they were already around.”

There is as yet no hard evidence of infectious disease transmission between humans and Neanderthals; however, considering the overlap in time and geography, and not least the evidence of interbreeding, Houldcroft and Underdown say that it must have occurred.

Neanderthals would have adapted to the diseases of their European environment. There is evidence that humans benefited from receiving genetic components through interbreeding that protected them from some of these: types of bacterial sepsis – blood poisoning occurring from infected wounds – and encephalitis caught from ticks that inhabit Siberian forests.

In turn, the humans, unlike Neanderthals, would have been adapted to African diseases, which they would have brought with them during waves of expansion into Europe and Asia.

̽��ֱ��researchers describe Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium that causes stomach ulcers, as a prime candidate for a disease that humans may have passed to Neanderthals. It is estimated to have first infected humans in Africa 88 to 116 thousand years ago, and arrived in Europe after 52,000 years ago. ̽��ֱ��most recent evidence suggests Neanderthals died out around 40,000 years ago.

Another candidate is herpes simplex 2, the virus which causes genital herpes. There is evidence preserved in the genome of this disease that suggests it was transmitted to humans in Africa 1.6 million years ago from another, currently unknown hominin species that in turn acquired it from chimpanzees.

“ ̽��ֱ��‘intermediate’ hominin that bridged the virus between chimps and humans shows that diseases could leap between hominin species. ̽��ֱ��herpesvirus is transmitted sexually and through saliva. As we now know that humans bred with Neanderthals, and we all carry 2-5% of Neanderthal DNA as a result, it makes sense to assume that, along with bodily fluids, humans and Neanderthals transferred diseases,” says Houldcroft.

Recent theories for the cause of Neanderthal extinction range from climate change to an early human alliance with wolves resulting in domination of the food chain. “It is probable that a combination of factors caused the demise of Neanderthals,” says Houldcroft, “and the evidence is building that spread of disease was an important one.”

Inset image: Dr Charlotte Houldcroft

Review of latest genetic evidence suggests infectious diseases are tens of thousands of years older than previously thought, and that they could jump between species of ‘hominin’. Researchers says that humans migrating out of Africa would have been ‘reservoirs of tropical disease’ – disease that may have sped up Neanderthal extinction.

Humans migrating out of Africa would have been a significant reservoir of tropical diseases

Charlotte Houldcroft

Erich Ferdinand

Neanderthal man

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Roman toilets gave no clear health benefit, and Romanisation actually spread parasites

fpjl2 — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 01:02:25 +0000

̽��ֱ��Romans are well known for introducing sanitation technology to Europe around 2,000 years ago, including public multi-seat latrines with washing facilities, sewerage systems, piped drinking water from aqueducts, and heated public baths for washing. Romans also developed laws designed to keep their towns free of excrement and rubbish.

However, new archaeological research has revealed that – for all their apparently hygienic innovations – intestinal parasites such as whipworm, roundworm and Entamoeba histolytica dysentery did not decrease as expected in Roman times compared with the preceding Iron Age, they gradually increased.

̽��ֱ��latest research was conducted by Dr Piers Mitchell from Cambridge’s Archaeology and Anthropology Department and is published today in the journal Parasitology. ̽��ֱ��study is the first to use the archaeological evidence for parasites in Roman times to assess “the health consequences of conquering an empire”.

Mitchell brought together evidence of parasites in ancient latrines, human burials and ‘coprolites’ – or fossilised faeces – as well as in combs and textiles from numerous Roman Period excavations across the Roman Empire.

Not only did certain intestinal parasites appear to increase in prevalence with the coming of the Romans, but Mitchell also found that, despite their famous culture of regular bathing, ‘ectoparasites’ such as lice and fleas were just as widespread among Romans as in Viking and medieval populations, where bathing was not widely practiced.

Some excavations revealed evidence for special combs to strip lice from hair, and delousing may have been a daily routine for many people living across the Roman Empire

Piers Mitchell said: “Modern research has shown that toilets, clean drinking water and removing faeces from the streets all decrease risk of infectious disease and parasites. So we might expect the prevalence of faecal oral parasites such as whipworm and roundworm to drop in Roman times – yet we find a gradual increase. ̽��ֱ��question is why?”

One possibility Mitchell offers is that it may have actually been the warm communal waters of the bathhouses that helped spread the parasitic worms. Water was infrequently changed in some baths, and a scum would build on the surface from human dirt and cosmetics. “Clearly, not all Roman baths were as clean as they might have been,” said Mitchell.

Another possible explanation raised in the study is the Roman use of human excrement as a crop fertilizer. While modern research has shown this does increase crop yields, unless the faeces are composted for many months before being added to the fields, it can result in the spread of parasite eggs that can survive in the grown plants.

“It is possible that sanitation laws requiring the removal of faeces from the streets actually led to reinfection of the population as the waste was often used to fertilise crops planted in farms surrounding the towns,” said Mitchell.

̽��ֱ��study found fish tapeworm eggs to be surprisingly widespread in the Roman Period compared to Bronze and Iron Age Europe. One possibility Mitchell suggests for the rise in fish tapeworm is the Roman love of a sauce called garum.

Made from pieces of fish, herbs, salt and flavourings, garum was used as both a culinary ingredient and a medicine. This sauce was not cooked, but allowed to ferment in the sun. Garum was traded right across the empire, and may have acted as the “vector” for fish tapeworm, says Mitchell.

“ ̽��ֱ��manufacture of fish sauce and its trade across the empire in sealed jars would have allowed the spread of the fish tapeworm parasite from endemic areas of northern Europe to all people across the empire. This appears to be a good example of the negative health consequences of conquering an empire,” he said.

̽��ֱ��study shows a range of parasites infected people living in the Roman Empire, but did they try to treat these infections medically? While Mitchell says care must be taken when relating ancient texts to modern disease diagnoses, some researchers have suggested that intestinal worms described by Roman medical practitioner Galen (130AD - 210AD) may include roundworm, pinworm and a species of tapeworm.

Galen believed these parasites were formed from spontaneous generation in putrefied matter under the effect of heat. He recommended treatment through modified diet, bloodletting, and medicines believed to have a cooling and drying effect, in an effort to restore balance to the ‘four humours’: black bile, yellow bile, blood and phlegm.

Added Mitchell: “This latest research on the prevalence of ancient parasites suggests that Roman toilets, sewers and sanitation laws had no clear benefit to public health. ̽��ֱ��widespread nature of both intestinal parasites and ectoparasites such as lice also suggests that Roman public baths surprisingly gave no clear health benefit either.”

“It seems likely that while Roman sanitation may not have made people any healthier, they would probably have smelt better.”

Reference
Mitchell, PD. Human parasites in the Roman World: health consequences of conquering an empire. Parasitology; 8 Jan 2016.

Archaeological evidence shows that intestinal parasites such as whipworm became increasingly common across Europe during the Roman Period, despite the apparent improvements the empire brought in sanitation technologies.

It seems likely that while Roman sanitation may not have made people any healthier, they would probably have smelt better

Piers Mitchell

Left: Craig Taylor. Right: Piers Mitchell

Left: Roman latrines from Lepcis Magna in Libya. Right: Roman whipworm egg from Turkey

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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