An international team of scientists has found that after agriculture arrived in Europe 8,500 years ago, people’s DNA underwent widespread changes, altering their height, digestion, immune system and skin color. David Reich (HMS) is senior author and Iain Mathieson (HMS) is lead author of the study.
An argument over the authenticity of ancient DNA is leading researchers to question a headline-making study which changed views on the dawn of farming in Western Europe. Pontus Skoglund (HMS) is quoted.
Scientists say they have extracted ancient DNA from the skull of a man buried in the highlands of Ethiopia 4,500 years ago that supports the theory that Eurasian farmers migrated into Africa some 3,000 years ago. David Reich (HMS) is quoted.
Some people in the Brazilian Amazon are very distant relations of indigenous Australians, New Guineans and other Australasians, two groups of scientists who conducted detailed genetic analyses reported. But the researchers disagree on the source of that ancestry. David Reich, professor of genetics, is senior author of one of the papers.
For centuries, archaeologists have reconstructed the early history of Europe by digging up ancient settlements and examining the items that their inhabitants left behind. More recently, researchers have been scrutinizing something even more revealing than pots, chariots and swords: DNA. David Reich, professor of genetics, led the research.
A group of researchers discovered an ancient wolf bone and say its DNA suggests dogs diverged from wolves 27,000 to 40,000 years ago – not 11,000 to 16,000 years ago, as previous research has suggested. Pontus Skoglund, research fellow in genetics, is a coauthor of the study.
Imagine what it must have been like to look through the first telescopes or the first microscopes, or to see the bottom of the sea as clearly as if the water were gin. This is how students of human prehistory are starting to feel, thanks to a new ability to study ancient DNA extracted from bodies and bones in archaeological sites. David Reich, professor of genetics, is mentioned.
