All articles tagged with #ancientdna
Two Denisovan leg bones dredged from the Penghu Channel in Taiwan were assigned to Denisovans via ancient proteomes, and initial estimates suggest they were tall (about 1.8–1.9 meters), but with no secure dating or geological provenance the species-wide height is uncertain and caution is advised in interpreting Denisovans as taller than other ancient humans.
Genetic analysis of two Chilean mummies dated 1492–1631 recovered the oldest smallpox DNA known in the Americas, belonging to an extinct variola lineage that bridges Old World European strains with later variants and providing direct molecular evidence that Europeans introduced smallpox to Indigenous populations during colonization.
A study analyzing ancient DNA from 521 woolly mammoths across Eurasia and North America (about 50,000 years) found that roughly 70% of mammoths at human-accumulation sites were female, compared with about 34% female at natural settings. This suggests prehistoric hunters may have selectively targeted female-led herds, possibly because these groups moved more predictably or females and juveniles were easier to pin down. The research, spanning multiple sites including a major Polish site with over 100 mammoths, was published in Current Biology and adds detail to how Ice Age humans hunted mammoths and how such hunting could have influenced mammoth populations and extinction timelines.
Genomic analysis of smallpox DNA from Chilean mummies shows the virus arrived in the Americas from Europe, with the Chilean strain diverging from a European lineage around the 13th century, confirming European colonizers were the source and illustrating how the virus evolved as it spread to new populations.
New ancient DNA from two Chilean mummies dating to 1492–1631 CE links the smallpox outbreak in the Americas to European contact, with the CAM9 lineage sitting between medieval European strains and later variants, providing genetic proof of early smallpox arrival in South America.
Ancient DNA from the Medici remains shows two Plasmodium parasites, confirming malaria killed Grand Duke Francesco de Medici in 1587 and his wife Bianca Cappello rather than poisoning, and revealing a previously unknown Plasmodium falciparum strain that informs how malaria spread across Renaissance Italy and how the parasite evolved.
An international team analyzed ancient DNA from the Medici brothers’ remains and detected Plasmodium falciparum infections, confirming malaria as the cause of death for Francesco and Giovanni and ending centuries of poisoning speculation.
An international team reports the first recovery of ancient human DNA from cave-wall calcite on 24 rock-art panels across 11 caves in Spain and Portugal, including Escoural and Altamira. The DNA traces, sometimes found on painted or unpainted walls, imply people touched or lingered at these sites thousands of years ago and may record movement and activity beyond what the art alone shows. In some samples, nuclear DNA aligns with Western Hunter-Gatherers and allows occasional sex inferences; the Escoural painted sample yielded ancient mitochondrial DNA, while an Altamira pigment sample showed DNA fragments but no strong ancient signal. The human DNA is at least 4,000–5,000 years old, with uncertain dating, and researchers caution that sampling remains destructive. If refined, this approach could help map cave use, gender distribution, and possibly which groups created or interacted with the art, adding a new dimension to prehistoric studies.
A Leiden-led study analyzed 27 Neanderthal genomes from France and Belgium, including a Les Cottés individual, revealing diverse, interconnected communities with distinct ancestral lineages and no evidence of recent contact with modern humans.
A Nature study analyzing genomes from 27 Neanderthals in Belgium and France—including a high-quality GN1 genome from Goyet—finds these late groups were genetically diverse and broadly connected across western Europe. The results challenge views of isolated, inbred populations and suggest regular long‑distance contact, with no evidence of recent interbreeding with modern humans in northwestern Europe. The data indicate a network of interconnected communities persisting until near the Neanderthals’ extinction around 52,500 years ago, while some older lineages persisted alongside newer ones.
A Princeton team led by Joshua Akey used IBDmix to compare modern humans with Neanderthals and Denisovans, revealing three interbreeding pulses roughly 200–250k, 120k, and 50–60k years ago. The finding suggests Neanderthals weren’t simply extinct but were repeatedly absorbed into the human lineage, with about 2.5–3.7% of non-African DNA of Neanderthal origin and bidirectional gene flow between the groups, reshaping the extinction narrative with a long, complex history of contact.
DNA from teeth at four Siberian cemeteries shows Yersinia pestis in victims dating to about 5,500 years ago, making this the oldest known plague outbreak and indicating that hunter-gatherers near Lake Baikal were devastated before farming communities. The early strain lacked later virulence genes but was still deadly, likely spreading pneumonically and disproportionately affecting children; burial patterns suggest the disease spread within families along the Angara River, challenging the idea that plague only emerged with agriculture.
Two waves of lethal Yersinia pestis outbreaks occurred among mid-Holocene hunter-gatherers near Lake Baikal around 5,500 years ago, with a 39% plague detection rate across four cemeteries. The Baikal strains are basal to known plague lineages and lack flea-transmission genes, implying rapid human-to-human spread (likely pneumonic) rather than flea-borne transmission. Outbreaks disproportionately affected children, clustered within tight radiocarbon date ranges, and kin groups show contemporaneous deaths, suggesting swift transmission within mobile communities. These findings push the plague’s origin earlier than Europe’s Neolithic cases and point to longstanding marmot/rodent reservoirs driving recurrent spillovers in Asia.
A Nature study of four Siberian graves near Lake Baikal, dating to about 5,500 years ago, found Yersinia pestis DNA in roughly 40% of the remains, offering the oldest evidence of plague and suggesting two prehistoric outbreaks that spread within families among hunter‑gatherers. The bacterium likely caused pneumonic plague at the time—not the flea‑borne bubonic form that emerged later—and the findings challenge the idea that the Neolithic agricultural shift was the primary driver of plague emergence, showing it could affect hunter‑gatherer communities as well.
A large-scale ancient genomics study from southern Germany’s former Roman frontier shows a major demographic shift after the late Roman period, with northern-European ancestry mixing with diverse Roman populations between 470–620 CE, and persistence of genetic structure into the sixth century before forming a population resembling modern Central Europeans by the early seventh century. Using Chronograph, a Bayesian method that integrates grave dating, radiocarbon and kinship, the researchers estimate a 28-year generation time, life expectancy around 40 years for women and 43 years for men, and high infant mortality, with roughly a quarter of children losing a parent by age 10. The social system appears to center on nuclear, monogamous families with strict incest avoidance and no levirate, echoing Late Roman practices. Despite a Frankish takeover around 540 CE, population structure remained largely stable, though long-distance migrations and nonlocal individuals were evident in pre- and post-Roman contexts. The findings challenge a simple “barbarian migration” narrative, highlighting gradual demographic reorganization driven by mobility and local integration across a broad region.