The Poop on Ancient Man
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Fossilized
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The poop on ancient man
Fossilized feces are a veritable trove of human DNA and could answer a host of questions about the hunter-gatherer life thousands of years ago. JACOB BERKOWITZ reports
By JACOB BERKOWITZ
Saturday, June 19, 2004 - Page F10
Hendrik Poinar is holding a small plastic vial containing some of the oldest DNA ever extracted from human remains. The snips of genetic material are from a native American who made his home 8,000 years ago in a massive cliff-side rock shelter in southwestern Texas.
Dr. Poinar, an assistant professor in the department of anthropology, pathology and molecular medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, believes that this ancient DNA holds the answers to a host of major scientific questions: Did the first peoples come to North America in a single migration, or several? What were the pre-Columbian diseases on this continent? Were there dietary differences between the sexes in archaic hunter-gatherer populations?
But what he is most excited about is the unusual source of this genetic information. It's not from old bones or teeth, but fossilized feces, or coprolites , which he believes will reveal more about ancient human and pre-human life than any other source of DNA.
"Coprolites are fantastic sources of DNA. It turns out that with bones and poop from the same cave, the poops outdo the bones in terms of DNA yields by up to 10-fold," he says.
(Much more at site...)
(Thanks to the Forteana list!)
The poop on ancient man
Fossilized feces are a veritable trove of human DNA and could answer a host of questions about the hunter-gatherer life thousands of years ago. JACOB BERKOWITZ reports
By JACOB BERKOWITZ
Saturday, June 19, 2004 - Page F10
Hendrik Poinar is holding a small plastic vial containing some of the oldest DNA ever extracted from human remains. The snips of genetic material are from a native American who made his home 8,000 years ago in a massive cliff-side rock shelter in southwestern Texas.
Dr. Poinar, an assistant professor in the department of anthropology, pathology and molecular medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, believes that this ancient DNA holds the answers to a host of major scientific questions: Did the first peoples come to North America in a single migration, or several? What were the pre-Columbian diseases on this continent? Were there dietary differences between the sexes in archaic hunter-gatherer populations?
But what he is most excited about is the unusual source of this genetic information. It's not from old bones or teeth, but fossilized feces, or coprolites , which he believes will reveal more about ancient human and pre-human life than any other source of DNA.
"Coprolites are fantastic sources of DNA. It turns out that with bones and poop from the same cave, the poops outdo the bones in terms of DNA yields by up to 10-fold," he says.
(Much more at site...)
(Thanks to the Forteana list!)
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