People thought that leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, came to the Americas with European colonizers hundreds of years ago. But a new study that is changing the way we think about this has come out. Researchers looking at 4,000-year-old skeletons from Chile have found genetic proof of Mycobacterium lepromatosis, a rare and severe form ...
Archaeologists have been arguing for years about the social structure of Çatalhöyük, a big Neolithic settlement in Turkey that was around from 7100 to 6000 BCE. Was it a society where women were in charge, or was it something else? Finally, a new study published in Science has answered this question. The study shows that ...
A groundbreaking expedition to Antarctica’s Denman Glacier has revealed how ancient DNA (aDNA) can help scientists predict the future of Earth’s ecosystems. As climate change accelerates, researchers are turning to genetic material preserved in marine life to reconstruct past environments and anticipate how ecosystems might respond to ongoing environmental shifts. The study, led by Australian ...
Frozen in Siberian permafrost, originally believed to be among the earliest domesticated dogs, the “Tumat Puppies” enthralled researchers and dog enthusiasts alike for more than ten years. However, a ground-breaking new study reveals they were actually wolf sisters with a surprising last meal, woolly rhinoceros, shattering that assumption. This finding not only changes their narrative ...
From the bones of individuals living 6,000 years ago deep in Colombia’s highlands, a genetic mystery has emerged. Their DNA tells a different story than any other one without clear ancestors or descendants in the modern society. These prehistoric people unearthed on the Bogotá Altiplano challenge our understanding of American population distribution. Whales: they were ...
The plague has tormented mankind like a shadow for millennia, wiping off whole populations in waves of destruction. Up to half of the population in Europe in the 14th century, the Black Death alone claimed an estimated 25 million lives. Still, the bacterium causing the epidemic, Yersinia pestis, never really disappeared despite its terrible toll. ...
A groundbreaking genetic study has uncovered a Neanderthal population in France that remained completely isolated for 50,000 years. Unlike other Neanderthal groups, which often exchanged genes with neighboring populations, this group remained genetically and culturally separate. The discovery raises new questions about the role of isolation in Neanderthal extinction and challenges long-held assumptions about their ...
High mountain lakes in Europe were naturally fishless due to geographical barriers. However, recent studies revealed that humans introduced fish into these ecosystems much earlier than previously documented. Utilizing ancient environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis, researchers have traced fish presence in Lake Redon, located in the Pyrenees Mountains of Spain, back to the 7th century CE. ...
Linnea H, BSc Sociology
