Ancient DNA Studies On Human Remains
Due to the considerable anthropological, archaeological, and public interest directed towards human remains, it is only natural that they have received a similar amount of attention from the DNA community. Due to their obvious signs of morphological preservation, many studies utilised mummified tissue as a source of ancient human DNA. Examples include both naturally preserved specimens, for example those preserved in ice, such as the Ötzi the Iceman (Handt et al. 1994), or through rapid desiccation, for example high-altitude mummies from the Andes (c.f. Pääbo 1986; Montiel et al. 2001)), as well as various sources of artificially preserved tissue (such as the chemically treated mummies of ancient Egypt). However, mummified remains are a limited resource, and the majority of human aDNA studies have focused on extracting DNA from two sources that are much more common in the archaeological record – bone and teeth. Recently, several other sources have also yielded DNA, including paleofaeces (Poinar et al. 2001) and hair (Baker et al. 2001, Gilbert et al. 2004). Contamination remains a major problem when working on ancient human material.
Read more about this topic: Ancient DNA
Famous quotes containing the words ancient, dna, studies, human and/or remains:
“I think a Person who is thus terrifyed [sic] with the Imagination of Ghosts and Spectres much more reasonable, than one who contrary to the Reports of all Historians sacred and profane, ancient and modern, and to the Traditions of all Nations, thinks the Appearance of Spirits fabulous and groundless.”
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719)
“Here [in London, history] ... seemed the very fabric of things, as if the city were a single growth of stone and brick, uncounted strata of message and meaning, age upon age, generated over the centuries to the dictates of some now all-but-unreadable DNA of commerce and empire.”
—William Gibson (b. 1948)
“Even the poor student studies and is taught only political economy, while that economy of living which is synonymous with philosophy is not even sincerely professed in our colleges. The consequence is, that while he is reading Adam Smith, Ricardo, and Say, he runs his father in debt irretrievably.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The great renewal of the world will perhaps consist in this, that man and maid, freed of all false feelings and reluctances, will seek each other not as opposites, but as brother and sister, as neighbors, and will come together as human beings.”
—Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926)
“... in any war a victory means another war, and yet another, until some day inevitably the tides turn, and the victor is the vanquished, and the circle reverses itself, but remains nevertheless a circle.”
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973)