Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Hominid DNA Analyzed from Dirt


    Recently researchers have learned how to extract prehistoric human DNA from the dirt and mud in ancient human cave sediments. This is useful because finding ancient human skeletal remains is very rare. Scientists use this genetic analysis to track the migration of ancient humans throughout the world and to understand a timeline of interactions between ancient humans and neanderthals.

    In this dirt/mud extract, chromosomal DNA is very hard to find, so researcher have to try to find hominid mitochondrial DNA. This leads us to find hominid DNA in caves where no hominid remains remain. I think this dirt/mud mitochondrial genetic analysis can give us a further insight into anthropological history and can give us further insight into out relationship with neanderthals.


Links:


https://www.sciencenews.org/article/neandertal-dna-cave-mud-migration-eurasia


https://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6338/605

1 comment:

  1. I found this post very interesting. It is amazing to see how far technology has come when it comes to genetics. By using chromosomal DNA from dirt and mud, we can find out the migration patterns of ancient humans. It is amazing to see how we can gain all this information from a small piece of evidence.

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