r/Anthropology

Forgive me for the pay wall.

Here is the abstract: The salivary amylase gene AMY1 exhibits remarkable copy number variation linked to dietary shifts in human evolution. While global studies highlight its structural complexity and association with starch-rich diets, localized selection patterns remain underexplored. Here, we analyze AMY1 copy number in 3,723 individuals from 85 populations, revealing that Indigenous Peruvian Andean populations possess the highest AMY1 copy number globally. A genome-wide analysis shows significantly higher amylase copy numbers in Peruvian Andean genomes compared to closely related populations. Further, we identify positive selection (selection coefficient of 0.0124, log likelihood ratio of 11.1543) at the nucleotide level on a haplotype harboring at least five haploid AMY1 copies, with a Peruvian Andean-specific expansion dated to around 10,000 years ago, coinciding with potato domestication in the region. Using ultra-long-read sequencing, we demonstrate that previously described recombination-based mutational mechanisms drive the formation of high-copy AMY1 haplotypes observed in Andean population. Our study provides a framework for investigating structurally complex loci and their role in human dietary adaptation.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-71450-8

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-71450-8

P.S. I'm also an author on this paper and can answer any questions!

A deer rib pulled from an ancient butchery site in central China carried an unexpected clue. Inside the bone, calcite crystals had grown over time, and those crystals turned out to be a kind of clock.

“Understanding how early Homo established a successful ecological niche is central to human evolution research,” the authors write. “Animal carcasses offered concentrated energy and may have fostered crucial biological and behavioural changes.

“Whether early Homo obtained carcasses primarily through scavenging or hunting has been debated for decades. Early interpretations emphasised opportunistic scavenging, whereas later work argued for hunting or confrontational scavenging.”

A study published in the Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology has identified the earliest evidence of prehistoric occupation by island dwellers of northern Sri Lanka. Long thought to be unsuitable for human occupation due to its scarce stone resources and semi-arid landscape, the findings at Velanai Island challenge this long-held belief and offer insights into early raw-material exploitation, seafaring capabilities, and subsistence behavior.

Hi everyone

I'm an independent researcher from Melbourne, Australia, and I recently published a preprint on what I believe is a previously unrecognised lunar calendar on the recto of Rongorongo Tablet C (Mamari).

By analysing recurring delimiter sequences and "staff and bud" glyphs, I've identified a second calendrical pattern (Lunar Calendar B) that aligns structurally with the known lunar calendar first identified by Thomas Barthel in 1958. Once you see it, it can't be unseen.

Progress on the decipherment of Rongorongo has been fairly static since Barthel's work, and I'm genuinely curious whether this finding might help move things forward.

I'd love to hear your thoughts — in particular, whether you think this is significant, and any critical feedback on the methodology.

Preprint: https://zenodo.org/records/19950107

Regards

Peter Berrett
Melbourne Australia