All articles tagged with #ancient dna
New genetic analysis of 5,500-year-old graves on Gotland, Sweden reveals that people buried together were mostly second- or third-degree relatives, underscoring the central role of extended kin networks in Stone Age hunter-gatherer society.
A DNA analysis of 5,500-year-old burials at Ajvide on Gotland, Sweden, uncovers complex kinship networks among Neolithic hunter-gatherers: many graves held distant relatives rather than immediate family, including a teen girl whose father’s bones were placed atop her grave, with bones moved from elsewhere; the study suggests kinship beyond the immediate family shaped burial practices.
Colossal Biosciences has brought dire wolves Romulus and Remus to life from ancient DNA, raised with surrogate dog mothers, and they are now about 16 months old with maturation to around age three. They recently fed on their first deer carcass and also catch small prey on Colossal’s 2,000+ acre preserve, illustrating their wolf nature rather than domestication. A female pup named Khaleesi, born Jan. 2025, rounds out the trio. They’re friendly toward staff when fed but remain wild wolves, not pets.
Extinction of Neanderthals appears to be the result of a mix of regional pressures: small, isolated populations prone to inbreeding and mutational burden, competition with expanding modern humans, and varied demographic dynamics across Eurasia. Genetic evidence confirms interbreeding with Homo sapiens, meaning Neanderthals contributed to the modern human genome, but there is no single smoking gun or uniform fate—different Neanderthal groups disappeared for different reasons over time.
Ghost lineages are extinct or unsampled ancestral populations whose DNA persists in modern genomes; scientists detect them when portions of our DNA cannot be traced to known relatives, revealing hidden chapters of evolution and ancient gene flow from Neanderthals, Denisovans, and other unknown lineages.
DNA analysis of remains from Grotta della Monaca in Calabria uncovers a 3,700-year-old case of a child born to a father–daughter pair, the earliest such instance confirmed in prehistoric Europe. The population shows strong links to Early Bronze Age Sicily and some movement to northeastern Italy, indicating wider regional networks despite the site’s remote location. Interestingly, most adults lacked the lactase-persistence gene, yet dairy was regularly consumed—likely via yogurt or cheese—demonstrating culturally driven dietary adaptation before genetic changes.
Researchers analyzing 12,000-year-old remains of a mother and child from southern Italy used paleogenomics to diagnose acromesomelic dysplasia, identifying an NPR2 gene variant and making it the oldest DNA-confirmed genetic diagnosis in humans.
New high-quality ancient DNA sequencing shows the Beachy Head Woman likely originated in Britain and was part of the local Roman-era population, overturning earlier suggestions of sub-Saharan African or Mediterranean ancestry and informing a modern facial reconstruction (light skin, blue eyes, fair hair).
Researchers recovered TE1-3, the oldest Treponema pallidum genome, from a 5,500-year-old skeleton in Sabana de Bogotá, Colombia, pushing the bacterium’s presence in the Americas back by thousands of years and fueling the argument that syphilis may have originated in the Americas, though the exact origin and transmission routes remain unsettled.
A 5,500-year-old shin bone from Colombia yielded DNA of a close relative of the syphilis bacterium, providing the oldest evidence that syphilis originated in the Americas long before European contact.
New, higher-quality ancient-DNA analysis shows the Beachy Head Woman likely originated from southern England and shares ancestry with Romano-British locals, not Mediterranean or sub-Saharan populations; a revised facial reconstruction suggests light skin, blue eyes, and fair hair.
A 14,000-year-old wolf pup preserved in Siberian permafrost contained woolly rhinoceros tissue in its stomach. Scientists sequenced the rhinoceros genome from this stomach content—the first time a genome has been recovered from such material—and compared it with other woolly rhino genomes. They found no evidence of severe genetic deterioration, suggesting the species declined rapidly due to climate warming at the end of the last Ice Age rather than human hunting. The work, published in Genome Biology and Evolution, highlights permafrost-preserved remains as a powerful source of ancient dietary and ecological insights.
A genomic analysis recovered woolly rhino DNA from the stomach of a mummified ice-age wolf pup dating to about 14,400 years ago in Russia, offering a rare direct glimpse into the species’ gene pool as it was near extinction. The study suggests the woolly rhino’s final decline occurred rapidly after a population collapse likely linked to climate warming, and the sample was initially mistaken for belonging to a cave lion.
Scientists sequenced the woolly rhinoceros genome from tissue preserved in a 14,000-year-old wolf pup’s stomach in Siberian permafrost, marking the first time a genome has been reconstructed from inside another animal. By comparing this genome with other woolly rhino fossils and the Sumatran rhino, researchers found the species remained genetically stable until climate warming ended the last Ice Age, suggesting environmental change—not human hunting—drove extinction. The wolf pups likely died when their den collapsed, and the preserved stomach contents also offer a broader view of their ecosystem.
In Siberian permafrost, scientists recovered a chunk of woolly rhinoceros tissue inside the stomach of one of two mummified Tumat wolf pups, enabling the first full genome of an Ice Age animal reconstructed from inside another Ice Age animal. The rhinoceros died about 14,400 years ago; its genome shows healthy genetic diversity up to near extinction, supporting climate change as the key driver of its demise rather than inbreeding. The finding highlights the value of preserved ancient DNA for understanding past ecosystems and informs conservation lessons for modern species facing warming and human pressures.