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Back to the future: Mastodon extends the time limit on DNA sequencing
July 24, 2007In a new paper in the open access journal PLoS Biology, Michael Hofreiter from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, and colleagues from Switzerland and the United States, announce the sequencing of the complete mitochondrial genome of the mastodon (Mammut americanum), a recently extinct relative of the living elephants that diverged about 26 million years ago. The sequence was obtained from a tooth dated to 50,000-130,000 years ago, increasing the specimen age for which such palaeogenomic analyses have been done by almost a complete glacial cycle. The mastodon becomes only the third extinct taxon for which the complete mitochondrial genome is known, joining the superficially similar looking woolly mammoth, and several species of Moa, the giant flightless Australasian bird.
Using the mitochondrial genome sequence, together with sequences from two African elephants, two Asian elephants, and two woolly mammoths (obtained from previous work), it was shown that mammoths are more closely related to Asian than to African elephants. This shows the power of genetic data to clarify interrelationships, even in the case of well studied taxa. Moreover, the researchers used the mastodon data as a calibration point, lying outside the Elephantidae radiation (elephants and mammoths), which enabled them to estimate accurately the time of divergence of African elephants from Asian elephants and mammoths (about 7.6 million years ago) and the time of divergence between mammoths and Asian elephants (about 6.7 million years ago). These dates are strikingly similar to the divergence time for humans, chimpanzees, and gorillas, and raise the possibility that the speciation of mammoths and elephants and of humans and African great apes had a comm on cause. Despite the similarity in divergence times, the substitution rate within primates is more than twice as high as in proboscideans, showing that the molecular clock ticks differently for different taxa.
Public Library of Science
Ancient T. rex and mastodon protein fragments discovered, sequenced
Scientists have confirmed the existence of protein in soft tissue recovered from the fossil bones of a 68 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) and a half-million-year-old mastodon.
Soft tissue taken from Tyrannosaurus rex fossil yields original protein
What happens when a 68 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex meets 21st century medical science? A North Carolina State University researcher and her colleagues at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center found out when they confirmed the existence of protein in soft tissue recovered from the bone of a 68 million-year-old T. rex.
Protein fragments sequenced in 68 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex
In a venture once thought to lie outside the reach of science, researchers from Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have captured and sequenced tiny pieces of collagen protein from a 68 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex.
Next good dinosaur news likely to come from small packages
Dinosaurs seem bigger than life - big bones, big mysteries. So it's a delicious irony that the next big answers about dinosaurs may come from small - very small - remains.
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Crack the Skye by Mastodon Mastodon has taken hold of the leadership of the New Wave of Progressive Heavy Metal. The band's 2006 major-label debut Blood Mountain spun off a Grammy nomination and earned Top 5 Best Album Of The Year nods from Kerrang!, Revolver, and Metal Hammer, and a Top 10 at Rolling Stone. Now Crack The Skye, its fourth original studio album, mines subject matter from czarist Russia and astral travel to out-of-body experiences and Stephen Hawking's theories on wormholes for an unrepentantly heavy aural assault that will shake the heavens. |
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Crack the Skye (CD & DVD) by Mastodon Deluxe Edition contains a bonus DVD featuring the making of Crack The Skye. Mastodon has taken hold of the leadership of the New Wave of Progressive Heavy Metal. The band's 2006 major-label debut Blood Mountain spun off a Grammy nomination and earned Top 5 Best Album Of The Year nods from Kerrang!, Revolver, and Metal Hammer, and a Top 10 at Rolling Stone. Now Crack The Skye, its fourth original studio album, mines subject matter from czarist Russia and astral travel to out-of-body experiences and Stephen Hawking's theories on wormholes for an unrepentantly heavy aural assault that will shake the heavens. |
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Leviathan by Mastodon "MASTODON are undoubtedly the future of metal" - KERRANG! "at that same cusp where METALLICA once perched, circa 1988's " And Justice For All. MASTODON is poised to rule the rock earth" - WASHINGTON POST / EXPRESS "MASTODON could be considered the second coming of Metallica and Rush combined, and nobody who's seen them live could counter that opinion." - MTV.com Inarguably one of the most exciting new bands to form in the last ten years, MASTODON is an explosive, unbridled force. With an ageless magnificence and rich musical imagination, MASTODON unleash Leviathan, an unabated testimonial to the band's earthshaking ability to rock. MASTODON's thundering musical muscle, talent and vast sea of ideas triumphantly unite on Leviathan, delivering heavy, organic music that... |
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Crack The Skye Mastodon (Primary Contributor) |
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Blood Mountain by Mastodon The sludgy, raw and fierce Mastodon blurs the line between metal, rock and prog with their major-label debut, Blood Mountain. |
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Remission by Mastodon MASTODON certainly awakened the slumbering heavy music scene on 'Remission.' 'Remission' bridged the soulful and technical as herculean yet incisive songwriting effortlessly fused with an expansive and emotive tenor. Creative, distinct, graceful and strong, MASTODON's 'Remission' features the traits of a benchmark release, a standard to which others will be held and ultimately measured. Rarely is rock so pure and hard-hitting. Songs such as the galloping "March of the Fire Ants," the beautiful "Ol'e Nessie," "Mother Puncher's" labyrinthine guitar workout, and the punishing "Workhorse" are nothing short of insta-classics, and the album's remaining seven tracks are not far behind. The quartet dug into their roadwork hard upon the release of Remission. First a two-month North... |
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Call of the Mastodon by Mastodon The Call of the Mastodon, a collection of MASTODON'S first-ever forays into the recording studio, exposes the humble beginnings of hard rock's heaviest hitters. The nine tracks laid to tape here, the first the fledgling quartet had ever written, document a band finding its' own voice and place in the musical world. Remixed and remastered by original producer Matt Washburn, and repackaged by the band's longtime artist Paul Romano, The Call of the Mastodon is a vital piece of heavy metal history and the crucial starting point in the still burgeoning MASTODON legacy. |
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The Workhorse Chronicles Starring: Mastodon MASTODON's The Workhorse Chronicles, the band's first official DVD release, is a first-hand account of the blood, sweat and tears that have gone into making this mammoth band you know today. Go behind the scenes in over three hours of hand-selected footage from the band's personal video archives. The Workhorse Chronicles contains in-depth interviews with each band member and a career spanning range of live performances - including rare footage of the band in their initial form as a five piece through to sold-out clubs worldwide. The Workhorse Chronicles delves deep into the core of MASTODON, exposing all that is loved and respected about this band. |
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