CNN
This week, DNA analysis reveals both the origins of mummies buried in boats in a China desert and the last stand of woolly mammoths in the Arctic, astronomers detect a possible extragalactic exoplanet, an endangered lemur has human-like rhythm, and more.
Commercial genetic tests can unveil surprising details about your roots. My Chinese mother-in-law, born in Hong Kong, found out she was a quarter Irish. The test results even pinpointed the county from where her previously unknown Irish grandfather originated.
Extracting ancient DNA is much harder than sending off a swab, but it has uncovered some startling revelations: Scientists learned in 2010 that humans and Neanderthals had babies together, leaving traces in our genes. And DNA from a tiny finger bone found in a Siberian cave revealed a mysterious early human population with whom Homo sapiens also interbred.
New techniques in ancient DNA analysis are providing more and more tantalizing details about prehistory, including some of the latest scientific discoveries in the past week.
I’m Katie Hunt, standing in for Ashley Strickland, who’s on vacation.
A long time ago
The mummies were found buried in boats in the Tarim Basin, Xianjiang, northwestern China. Shown is one site called Xiaohe Cemetery.
In an inhospitable desert in northwestern China, hundreds of stunningly intact mummies, buried in boats, were discovered in the 1990s. The Bronze Age mummies date back as far as 4,000 years ago. Their identity has long stumped archaeologists.
In a new study, scientists sequenced the genomes of 13 of the bodies and found they were descendants of ice age hunter-gatherers.
While this population was genetically isolated, the mummies’ clothing and the foods in their unusual graves suggested they interacted widely with other groups living in the region at the same time. But the boats they were buried in still remain a mystery.
Climate changed
Ancient DNA containing secrets of the past isn’t just found in old bones.
All animals, including humans, shed genetic material when they lose hair, slough off dead skin cells, pee, poop and bleed. This genetic material leaches into the soil, where it can remain for tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of years — when the conditions are right.
To track the whereabouts of woolly mammoths and other giant creatures of the ice age, scientists took soil samples from locations across the Arctic, extracting DNA from permafrost and sediment in an ambitious study.
Competing theories have been up for…
