Thousands of years ago, birch pitch was used as chewing gum. Just one piece of this chewing gum from 5,700 years ago was found to hold enough DNA to determine what one woman looked like. After analyzing this, scientists were able to piece together the genome, and determined that the woman had blue eyes, dark skin and dark hair. Not only was DNA found on the birch pitch, but there were microbes that may have been left from her mouth.
This discovery shows that fossilized bones are not the only source of ancient human DNA. Findings like this are fascinating, especially how this piece of chewing gum could last over 5,000 years and still contain DNA and microbes to help us determine specific traits.
Sources:
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/dna-5700-year-old-gum-may-reveal-ancient-woman-appearance
This is insane! Firstly, I didn't even know such a thing as gum was consumed by people that long ago. Seeing that DNA remains on that piece of gum for 5,700 years is unimaginable. Thank you for sharing this article!
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ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting. It is great to see how modern technology can be used in genetics today. It was interesting to see how they were able to make a model of the person who chewed that gum from 5,700 years ago.
ReplyDeletethats crazy dna could be found on gum that old, and even more amazing how we can figure out how she used to look like
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