The visionary leader served the campus as vice chancellor of medical sciences and dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA from 1994 to 2010.
The findings have implications for the conservation of rare and endangered species, in which low genetic diversity could increase the odds of extinction.
“Today’s rich biodiversity among marine fish shows the fingerprints of the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period,” said Michael Alfaro, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.
Denisovans, ancient hominids who lived alongside humans and Neanderthals, were first described in 2010 through DNA extracted from remains in a Siberian cave in 2008.
The animals, which are related to spiders and scorpions, “look terrifying, but are actually delicate, timid and afraid of you,” says UCLA doctoral candidate Kenneth Chapin.
Archaeologist Matthew Curtis was part of a team that recently discovered a skeleton that yielded the first complete ancient genome ever found in Africa.
Life scientists from UCLA and other universities in the U.S. and England argue that predatory animals helped keep the population of large herbivores in check.