Early hominin arrival in Southeast Asia triggered the evolution of major human malaria vectors - Scientific Reports Some species of the Leucosphyrus Group of Anopheles mosquitoes in Southeast Asia are highly anthropophilic and efficient vectors of human malaria parasites, while others primarily feed on non-human primates (NHP) and transmit NHP malaria parasites. The evolutionary history of this group, particularly the origin of anthropophily, was studied using phylogenomic analysis of 2,657 high-confidence nuclear single-copy orthologous genes and 13 mitochondrial protein coding genes from 40 individuals of 11 species. Molecular dating and ancestral state reconstruction revealed that monkey-feeding is ancestral with speciation of monkey-feeding species dating to the Pliocene within Sundaland (Malay peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra and Java) which was covered in tropical rain forests during this period. Although less parsimonious alternatives cannot be excluded, molecular dating, ancestral state reconstruction and reticulation analysis indicated that anthropophily most likely evolved once, involving adaptive introgression, in the early Pleistocene in Sundaland, giving rise to multiple descendent anthropophilic species. Such early origination of anthropophily must necessarily have been in response to the arrival of early hominins (Homo erectus) rather than anatomically modern humans, likely associated with loss and fragmentation of rainforests during the early Pleistocene. The early origination of anthropophily also provides independent non-archaeological evidence supporting the limited fossil record of early hominin colonization in Southeast Asia around 1.8 Mya.

The preference of some mosquitoes in the Leucosphyrus Group of Anopheles mosquitoes for feeding on humans may have evolved in response to the arrival of early hominins in Southeast Asia ~1.8 million years ago. The findings are published in Scientific Reports. 🧪 #evobio

Out Now!

Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection No 761 (2026 Vol 10)

www.mixcloud.com/upload/Cloud...

7 New LPs of the Week
2 CBQ Items
7 Back Catalogue LPs of the Week
20 Further New Things Into the Library

Grab your pen and paper to jot down top sounds you want to investigate further!

Brilliant 🏆

Isata Kanneh-Mason absolutely tears through Rachmaninoff’s fiendish Piano Concerto No. 3 with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Out now on Bandcamp cloudlandbluequartet.bandcamp.com/album/materi...

CBQ & Joe Higham - "Materialisation"

Free to Stream/Name Your Price to Download (DL Bundle contains 14 bonus tracks (74 Mins))

Also available from 2023:
cloudlandbluequartet.bandcamp.com/album/depart...

Out Now!

Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection No 760 (2026 Vol 09)

www.mixcloud.com/CloudlandBlu...

7 New LPs of the Week
2 CBQ Items
7 Back Catalogue LPs of the Week
20 Further New Things Into the Library

Grab your pen and paper to jot down top sounds you want to investigate further!

Yesterday's Listening 2026-03-06: 65/365
#AYearOfMusic

12 Items

Opera: Spontini
New: Ant Law, Morrissey, Nicola Ola, NIN, Prairie Prince, Shai Maestro, Walter Smith III & Yuri Honing
Live: Tangerine Dream
Mock Up: Capital Models' set played live last night
&
The new CBQ/Higham

Eclectic!

Got any?

#HappyCaturday

Gentoos arriving in stadium

Gentoo in red jacket

Our Gentoos are proudly representing themselves and HIMI in the Para Olympics.

Two scientists walk through a cluttered old-fashioned science laboratory. The female scientist says “Analogue instruments! Paper records! Chalk boards! I thought you'd agreed to modernise the laboratory?” The male scientist replies “That's what i'm so excited about: we have moved to cloud-based storage for our data!” They step out onto a balcony. She says: “Please tell me you haven't built a library zeppelin” This is exactly what he has done. It floats across the sky and he adds “It's got a fax machine!”

My cartoon for this week’s @newscientist.com

Scallop, a black-and-white blue-eyed husky mix, protectively cradles her stuffed rat toy on her favorite pillow.

Yeah, I know it's Caturday, but here's Scallop the lap husky cradling her rat baby.💙

Marsupials previously thought extinct for millennia discovered in New Guinea The chances of finding one mammal species thought to be lost was ‘almost zero’ and finding two is ‘unprecedented’, biologist Tim Flannery says

Celebrate the positive when it comes along:
Two charismatic marsupial species that had been thought extinct for 6,000 years are alive in rainforest in remote West Papu
www.theguardian.com/environment/... 🧪

A white cat playing with a coloured ball with a long red string. A black cat lies nearby. Background is silver.

'Playing cats' - Takahashi Hiroaki, ca. 1930.
#Caturday #JapaneseArt

While traveling to town halls and Caucuses across the 2nd District, I made a stop in Fort Kent for the Can-Am Crown.

Everywhere I go, Mainers in CD2 tell me they want a new generation of leaders who are here to represent us—not special interests in Washington. Let’s get to work.

🔵 This week's Tom the Dancing Bug
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Lucky Ducky meets his A.I. replacement, Digitial Ducky!
GOTCHA!
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Brought to you by the Inner Hive, including longtime member C3-PU and new member Scottbob.
patreon.com/rubenbolling/membership
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READ IT RIGHT HERE👇

Day of the Triffids (1981, BBC 6-part series)

The drawing for this (and some other pieces are) up now at: www.tomgauld.com/art-for-sale

Okay Miss, just a little further to Mawson’s Peak. Just past Cricket’s Revenge and along Cape Good, along Pretti Ridge and we will be at your new volca…We mean, Office.

#firefly

These are Chicago’s most endangered buildings in 2026: blockclubchi.co/4b2mZ75

One of my top five TD!

A view from the end of a salad bar, with a very early 80's vibe. The words "Arby's Country Fresh Salad Bar" are superimposed over a row of crocks and bowls with veggies, greens, and salad dressings, with ladles and spoons

Arby’s Country Fresh Salad Bar (1982-circa 1989): America's premier purveyor of roast beef got in on the salad bar game, offering bottomless greens, vegetables, fruit and cheese ( "15 fresh ingredients), six salad dressings, and more. It was marketed as "a trip to the farmer's market, at Arby's!" 🧵

A minor league hockey team had a wiener dog race. Zero thoughts, just vibes and absolute chaos. A thing of beauty

The grey/brown head and neck of a lizard. There are some light brown patches here and there. There is a bit of turquoise around the eyes and a green tinge on the snout. It is looking to the right in the picture.

🦎Rhinoceros iguana (Cyclura cornuta) in Hartley's Crocodile Adventures.

The popular name comes from the bony-plated growth on the iguana's snout

Max. total length 136 cm (4'6").

Native to the island of Hispaniola.

Considered Endangered by the IUCN.

📷by David Clode on Unsplash

Tiny, raucous monk parakeets from South America thrive in Chicago. But why? Likely escapees of the exotic pet trade, the birds first put down roots in some south suburbs in the 1960s and Hyde Park in the 1970s.

Generations of tiny, raucous, bright green monk parakeets from South America have survived, even thrived, in Chicago.

We want to everyone on our planet to have peaceful, prosperous lives in flourishing communities where cricket can play a central role. If that is asking for too much, then let's hope you at least have the cricket part.

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Today's #Cubs weather

Easy like Sunday evening