The analysis of the rhesus macaque monkey shows that it shares about 93 percent of its DNA with chimps and humans, but that the three species have some significant differences among their genes.

The macaque monkey is widely used for laboratory studies. Researchers say their work will enhance medical research in a wide range of areas, including HIV and neuroscience.

It will also advance scientists' understanding of primate evolution, and how humans are genetically different from our primate relatives.

Tim Bromage, an adjunct professor at New York University College of Dentistry, has reconstructed a skull belonging to the species Homo rudolfensis, which was discovered in Kenya in 1972.

Bromage used a deformable cast and computer-generated models to create replicas of the skull that could be shaped.

The analysis suggests that the specimen had a smaller brain than scientists had believed as well as a distinctly protruding jaw.

But other experts expressed skepticism about Bromage's argument that the repositioning of the specimen's face means its brain size must have been smaller.

"It's probably right that the face should stick far more forward. But to say that because they've changed the angle of the face, the brain size has to get smaller doesn't make any sense," said Robert Martin, a biological anthropologist at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois.

"The [specimen's brain] certainly isn't as small as [Bromage is] now arguing."

The 8.1 magnitude quake lifted the Solomons' Ranongga island ten feet (three meters) out of the sea, widening beaches by up to 230 feet (70 meters). The uplift has left some of the island's pristine coral reefs fatally exposed.

In some places the beaches in the Solomons now resemble a barren moonscape with once vibrant corals bleaching under the sun. On one beach the quake even revealed a sunken vessel that locals believe is a Japanese patrol boat from World War II.