Interesting facts from science

Genealogy research and DNA research are completely different. The genealogy examines facts from documents. DNA research examines DNA samples instead.

Scientific DNA research carried out by universities or well-known research institutes should not be equated with so-called rapid DNA analyses. More about this in the article DNA analysis.

Australia's rabbits

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) published an interesting article about Australia's rabbits.

The British colonialists brought rabbits to Australia 1788 and sooner or later one or two of the rabbits managed to find their way into the wild. But domestic rabbits cannot find their way in the wild and are therefore easy prey.

Today there are around 200 million rabbits living in Australia. The rabbits, which are a real nuisance for farmers, are now an invasive animal species in Australia. They threaten plant and animal species and cause damage to agriculture every year. It is interesting that these rabbits have the same ancestor - 24 British rabbits that came to Australia with the colonialist Thomas Austin.

Augustin won a property near Melbourne. Australia's invasive rabbit population likely descends from two dozen wild English rabbits that arrived near Melbourne in 1859. A genome analysis now suggests this. These rabbits were very shy and cautious and still had many of the wild rabbit genes. They were not easy prey and that is why they survived and spread so quickly to this day.

Source: Heather Chen, How 24 British rabbits took over Australia, CNN, August 24, 2022.

The Cross

The cross is the symbol of the church today. But when was the cross created?

The cross is older than the modern church. The symbol was already known in ancient times.

A team of researchers led by archaeologist Dr. Lee Berger has now investigated the Rising Star fetching system in South Africa. The already extinct human species Homo Naledi buried its fellows in these holes. The graves are a full 100,000 years older than the graves of modern humans or Neanderthals.

Researchers have discovered mural paintings carved into the walls. The geometric symbols were carved around 115,500 years before the birth of Christ. The wall paintings by Homo Naledi are a full 80,000 years older than the oldest wall paintings by the Neanderthals. Among the geometric symbols such as squares, triangles, lines, etc., researchers have also discovered the cross.

The first cross, around 111,500 BC:

Author Dr. Lee Berger.

The oldest pizza in the world

Researchers still don't agree on when and where the first pizza originated. In certain Greek documents a dish like pizza was described. But that's just a guess, there is no solid evidence.

Archaeologists recently discovered a fresco in Pompei from the year 79 depicting a pizza. And this is considered to be the oldest depiction of a pizza to date.

A Roman pizza had a thicker crust than today's Italian pizza and was therefore more similar to an American pizza. The Roman pizza was not topped with salami, but with dried fruits. Furthermore, it wasn't spread with tomato sauce or ketchup, but with a fruit pesto.

Source: Pompei: emerge una natura morta dai nuovi scavi della Regio IX, http://pompeiisites.org/comunicati/pompei-emerge-una-natura-morta-dai-nuovi-scavi-della-regio-ix/, 30. 6. 2023.