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Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. - Dr. Seuss
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NewsDaily: Earliest known dinosaur discovered

NewsDaily: Earliest known dinosaur discovered | this curious life | Scoop.it

A very big Labrador!!

 

Researchers have found what could be the earliest known dinosaur to walk the Earth lurking in the corridors of London's Natural History Museum.

 

A mysterious fossil specimen that has been in the museum's collection for decades has now been identified as most likely coming from a dinosaur that lived about 245 million years ago - 10 to 15 million years earlier than any previously discovered examples.

 

The creature was about the size of a Labrador dog and has been named Nyasasaurus parringtoni after southern Africa's Lake Nyasa, today called Lake Malawi, and Cambridge University's Rex Parrington, who collected the specimen at a site near the lake in the 1930s.

 

The researchers believe Nyasasaurus probably stood upright, was a meter tall at the hip, 2-3 meters long from head to tail, and weighed 20-60 kg.

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Mapping a genetic world beyond genes

Mapping a genetic world beyond genes | this curious life | Scoop.it
Most of the DNA alterations that are tied to disease do not alter protein-coding genes, but rather the “switches” that control them. Characterizing these switches is one of many goals of the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project.

 

'[This work] has revealed elements that act like dimmer switches, subtly turning up or down a gene’s activity and influencing what parts of the genome are utilized in different kinds of cells. The team characterized and mapped out the locations of thousands of these switches and signals.'

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