Planet News

New Bird-Like Dinosaur Related to Archaeopteryx

Three Feathered Tyrannosaurs Discovered

Woolly Mammoth DNA Adapted for Ice Age Survival

Rare Find: Three New Dinosaurs From Australia

Flute Belonged to Early Humans

Jurassic Dino Provides Clues to Bird Wing Evolution

Hobbit-Like Human Ancestor Found

Evolution Can Occur in Less Than Ten Years

Gigantic Trilobite Fossils Found in Portugal

Woolly Mammoth DNA Sequenced








PLANET NEWS

Woolly Mammoth DNA Adapted for Ice Age Survival

Bookmark and Share

Genetics researchers may not clone a woolly mammoth any time soon but they are learning much about the ice age creatures by studying their DNA. One recent study sequenced the gene for mammoth hemoglobin, a red blood cell protein that allows blood to carry oxygen around the body. The trouble is, hemoglobin function begins to shut down at cold temperatures.

Scientists conducing the study compared the genetic code of the hemoglobin gene from a 43,000 year-old woolly mammoth to that of modern elephants. Turns out, mammoth hemoglobin has a unique adaptation that seems to have enabled it to continue it's critical oxygen delivery functions even at cold temperatures.

Woolly mammoths evolved in Africa over one million years ago but migrated to Arctic regions just as the global climate began to cool significantly. The recently discovered hemoglobin adaptation must have been among many evolutionary changes that allowed mammoths to survive the brutal cold of the ice ages.

Source: Nature

Bookmark and Share

Planet Store
Velociraptor slashing & killing claw
Velociraptor slashing & killing claw   
Massive 6 7/8 Inch Megalodon (Otodus megalodon) tooth
Massive 6 7/8 Inch Megalodon (Otodus megalodon) tooth   
2022 Morgantown Gem, Mineral & Fossil Show, August 27-28, 2022
2022 Morgantown Gem, Mineral & Fossil Show, August 27-28, 2022   
5.InchTyrannosaurus rex Tooth
5.InchTyrannosaurus rex Tooth   
Planet Store

Geologic History of West Virginia
Free Book Download:
Geologic History of West Virginia by Dudley H. Cardwell (1977)
>> Download the Book