First Ancient-Human Genome Sequence Answers Anthropological Riddle

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/inuk-genome/

Meet Inuk, a 4,000-year-old man known from a tuft of hair found in Greenland permafrost.

In those frozen strands, enough DNA was preserved to sequence the first ancient-human genome and confirm an unexpected ancient migration from Siberia to the New World, plus a few of Inuk’s own traits.

Along with brown eyes, brown skin and facial hair, he had “a tendency to baldness,” said Eske Willerslev, a Niels Bohr Institute evolutionary geneticist who led the analysis, published Monday in Nature. “But because we found quite a lot of hair from this guy, we presume that he died young.”

The remains of Inuk — which translates to “person” or “human being” in the Inuit language family — were found in Qeqertasussuk, an archaeological site in southwest Greenland.

Read More http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/inuk-genome/#ixzz0fAsIlKJN


more at the link

[frogmarch]

1. Fascinating!

Thanks for posting this.

DNA technology is opening lots of doors, that's for sure. I love it!