Papers I Have Read This Week

The Position of Hippopotamidae Within Cetartiodactyla
PNAS 102:1537-1541. Fascinating discussion of the phlogeny of Hippos (apparently, they are related to whales). I'll probably do a post about it - maybe on Transitions

Coding Sequences of Functioning Human Genes Derived Entirely from Mobile Element Sequences.
PNAS 101:16825-16830. The title pretty much says it all.

The Rate of DNA Evolution: Effects of Body Size and Temperature on the Molecular Clock
PNAS (yes I've been reading a lot of PNAS lately) 102:140-145. Interesting article that ties in with this post. It explores the impact of body size, temperature and metabolic activity (the first two affect the third) on nucleotide substitution rates. Absolutely fascinating and I will be doing a post on it.

Molecular Origins of Rapid and Continuous Morphological Evolution.
ONAS 101:18058-18063. Pharyngula did a great post on this paper.

Modeling Gene and Genome Duplications in Eukaryotes
PNAS 102:5454-5459. Actually, I'm still in the process of reading this one.

A Hominid from the Lower Pleistocene of Atapuerca, Spain: Possible Ancestor to Neandertals and Modern Humans.
Science 276:1392-1395. Discussion of the Gran Dolina fossils. Places them in a new species (Home antecessor).