For the first time in history, they extract DNA from a Paleolithic woman.

avatar

For the first time in history, they extract DNA from a Paleolithic woman.



Image created by me in playgroundai


This is amazing news for the world of archaeology, because for the first time they have managed to isolate ancient human DNA from a pendant belonging to a Paleolithic woman, a woman who lived approximately 20,000 years ago in Denisova Cave in southern Siberia, Russia.


The pendant was an ornament made from an elk tooth, this new technique allows researchers to extract the DNA of people who have handled bone artifacts, giving us clues about what they were like and what their culture was like.



Souce


This was achieved by applying techniques that seem straight out of csi. To develop this new technique, the csi Caveman researchers took detailed surface images of 10 bone fragments and ivory artifacts, during excavations of Paleolithic sites in France, then subjected them to various chemical processes until they managed to extract the DNA, but they had a problem and that is that up to 98% of the human DNA they found turned out to be modern DNA, surely from the archaeologists who unearthed the pieces in the 1970s.


The researchers needed more pieces of bone But they had to come from modern excavations, where archaeologists use masks and gloves to avoid contaminating the finds, a clean piece not contaminated by modern DNA was found in the Denisova cave, it was the tooth pendant elk, in that piece they applied their new technique and it revealed the presence of an extraordinary amount of human DNA, mostly from a woman who lived between 19 and 25,000 years ago.



Souce


The key to this whole matter and why it is so important that they are pieces of Ivory bone is that the wearer's DNA is introduced into the porosity of the bone, due to the constant contact with their skin and that is where the DNA can remain for a long time. thousands of years ago, the only thing researchers cannot determine is whether the woman was the creator of the jewelry or just the wearer or did both.


The researchers hope to analyze more such artifacts to try to detect cultural patterns, for example, whether certain artifacts were used exclusively by men or women or by a specific group of ancient humans, the research team has asked current archaeologists to take measures to prevent newly discovered artifacts from being contaminated with modern DNA and thus be able to analyze them and discover the DNA of our ancestors, the DNA of those people who created or carried those objects.





Study Source




Thank you for visiting my blog. If you like posts about #science, #planet, #politics, #rights #crypto, #traveling and discovering secrets and beauties of the #universe, feel free to Follow me as these are the topics I write about the most. Have a wonderful day and stay on this great platform :) :)


! The truth will set us free and science is the one that is closest to the truth!




0
0
0.000
0 comments