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Ancientdna

All articles tagged with #ancientdna

Neolithic Europe’s Population Collapse Opened the Door for Iberian and Steppe Migrations
science2 days ago

Neolithic Europe’s Population Collapse Opened the Door for Iberian and Steppe Migrations

DNA from the Bury megalith near Paris shows two distinct burial phases: an earlier, diverse farming-population phase (3200–3100 BCE) and a later, Iberian-derived phase with largely homogeneous ancestry that replaced the former around 2900 BCE. The 200-year gap in burials and pollen data indicating forest regrowth suggest a continental population decline that emptied settlements and created a vacuum later filled by Iberian migrants in the Paris Basin and steppe populations in surrounding regions, pointing to a broad Neolithic collapse likely driven by infectious disease and environmental stress.

via Yahoo|
#ancientdna#burymegalith#demographicturnover
A 16,000-year bond: dogs woven into human life across Eurasia
science15 days ago

A 16,000-year bond: dogs woven into human life across Eurasia

Two Nature-published studies using ancient DNA and archaeology show dogs were living with humans across Eurasia by at least 16,000 years ago, with the Pınarbaşı dog in central Turkey (~15,800 years) buried with people and sharing food, and related dogs at Gough’s Cave in Britain (~14,300 years); later, dogs from Turkey interbred with European dogs brought by farmers about 8,500 years ago rather than replacing existing lineages, revealing a long, mobile, and deeply integrated relationship between dogs and humans before farming.

via The Conversation|
#ancientdna#archaeology#dogs
Dirt DNA reshapes the story of human origins
science18 days ago

Dirt DNA reshapes the story of human origins

Sedimentary DNA—DNA preserved in soils and sediments—is revolutionizing how we study human origins, enabling detection of Neanderthal, Denisovan, and early Homo DNA even where bones aren’t found. Since the 2017 breakthrough identifying ancient human DNA in ice-age soils, researchers have used targeted probes to enrich nuclear DNA and shotgun methods to extract DNA from cave sediments, pushing back timelines at sites like Denisova Cave and Baishiya Karst Cave. While mtDNA remains easier to recover and informative about lineages, nuclear DNA offers deeper population history but is rare and data-limited, requiring careful analysis to avoid contamination. Overall, dirt could complement or even replace some fossil work, opening a vast “blue ocean” of information about our past.

via Nature|
#ancientdna#denisovans#humanorigins
Ice-Age Mother-Daughter Skeletons Reveal Earliest AMDM Case
science1 month ago

Ice-Age Mother-Daughter Skeletons Reveal Earliest AMDM Case

Ancient DNA analysis of two closely related Ice Age skeletons from Romito Cave in Italy identifies a mother–daughter pair, with the younger diagnosed with acromesomelic dysplasia, Maroteaux type (AMDM) caused by NPR2 mutations—the earliest known AMDM case. The study highlights how a family carried a gene variant affecting bone growth and shows care within the group; findings were published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

via ScienceAlert|
#acromesomelic-dysplasia-maroteaux#ancientdna#nejm
Northwestern Europe’s Hunter-Gatherers Outlasted Farming by Millennia, DNA Reveals
science1 month ago

Northwestern Europe’s Hunter-Gatherers Outlasted Farming by Millennia, DNA Reveals

Ancient DNA from individuals in the Belgium–Netherlands region dating 8,500–1,700 BCE shows hunter-gatherers persisted thousands of years after farming arrived (~4,500 BCE), with only limited genetic input from incoming farmers. The farmer influx was largely women marrying into local communities, enabling a gradual cultural transition rather than a rapid population turnover, and hunter-gatherer ancestry remained common until about 2,500 BCE when new populations fully mixed. The study, part of a Reich Lab collaboration, was published in Nature and underscores the strong, gender-skewed role in knowledge transfer during Europe’s Neolithic transition.

via SciTechDaily|
#ancientdna#european-history#farming
DNA Pinpoints Northern Britain’s Oldest Known Mesolithic Burial
science1 month ago

DNA Pinpoints Northern Britain’s Oldest Known Mesolithic Burial

DNA analysis of an 11,000-year-old child from Heaning Wood Cave in Cumbria confirms the remains belong to a young girl and marks her as Northern Britain’s oldest known burial from the Mesolithic era. The find, one of the NW European region’s oldest Mesolithic burials, includes a perforated deer tooth and shell beads radiocarbon dated to about 11,000 years ago, suggesting deliberate burial practices by early hunter-gatherers. Local archaeologist Martin Stables helped uncover the site, which also reveals multiple burials across distinct periods, underscoring long-term use of caves for funerary rites in post-Ice Age Britain.

via SciTechDaily|
#ancientdna#britain#burial
Ancient genome reshapes the origin map of syphilis
science2 months ago

Ancient genome reshapes the origin map of syphilis

A team analyzing a 5,500-year-old Treponema pallidum genome from a Colombian rock shelter found the pathogen’s lineage was already diverse and not a direct ancestor of modern syphilis, bejel, or yaws. Instead, it’s a sister lineage that diverged around 13,700 years ago, suggesting treponemal diseases spread with ancient humans across continents long before the 1495 Naples outbreak. The discovery challenges single-origin stories and points to a richer, pan-human history of these pathogens, though details about virulence and transmission remain unresolved.

via Ars Technica|
#ancientdna#paleogenetics#science
Ancient DNA Discovered in Unexpected Location
science5 months ago

Ancient DNA Discovered in Unexpected Location

Scientists have recovered 200,000-year-old DNA from horse remains at the open-air Schöningen site in Germany, challenging previous assumptions that such genetic material could only survive in cold or sheltered environments. The DNA belongs to an extinct horse species, Equus mosbachensis, and provides new insights into ancient horse lineages and early human hunting practices. This discovery suggests that ancient DNA can be preserved in less protected environments, opening new avenues for archaeological genetic research.

via Indian Defence Review|
#ancientdna#archaeology#equine