Maui officials have asked relatives to provide DNA samples to help identify victims of the Lahaina wildfires. Time and exposure to the elements, however, can make DNA retrieval from remains difficult.
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Articles on Ancient DNA
Displaying 1 - 20 of 43 articles
Natural selection changed just 13 genes to separate your Felix and Fluffy from their African wildcat ancestor.
Ancient DNA from Ukraine uncovers the earliest evidence of the arrival of the ‘steppe ancestry’ – the last piece of the modern Western European genetic puzzle.
Ancient microbes likely produced natural products their descendants today do not. Tapping into this lost chemical diversity could offer a potential source of new drugs.
A way to recover the owner’s DNA from ancient artefacts will help archaeologists understand past societies in more detail than ever before.
Scientists had figured a fossil found in Spain more than a century ago was from a Neandertal. But a new analysis suggests it could be from a lost lineage of our species, Homo sapiens.
The first ancient DNA sequences from peoples of the medieval Swahili civilization push aside colonialist stories and reveal genetic connections from the past.
DNA analysis reveals a large migration of people into Scandinavia during Viking times.
Humanity carries traces of other populations in our DNA – and a new study shows how one of these ancestors has influenced the immune systems of modern Papuans.
DNA frozen for 2 million years paints a picture of an extinct ecosystem.
A German town needed to relocate a medieval graveyard to build a parking garage. A positive side effect: Scientists got to sequence the DNA of Ashkenazi Jews who lived more than 600 years ago.
Ancient DNA from Neanderthal fossils in southern Siberia reveals a small community with close family ties – including a father and his teenage daughter.
Deep in the oceans dwell creatures that can evade many of the evolutionary drivers of life on land – and they remain seemingly unchanged through time.
Ancient DNA helps reveal the tangled branches of the human family tree. Not only did our ancestors live alongside other human species, they mated with them, too.
Thousands of ancient genomes have been sequenced to date. A Nobel Prize highlights tremendous opportunities for aDNA, as well as challenges related to rapid growth, equity and misinformation.
Historical accounts show the upokororo was once common in rivers across the country. It’s now officially extinct, but is there a chance survivors could still be found in remote waterways?
Only half of New Zealand’s roughly 4,000 mollusc species have been seen alive. Now geneticists can decode DNA from shells in museum collections to trace the life histories of extinct or rare species.
DNA from ancient eastern moa bones is unlocking the secrets of their survival during the last ice age, and providing lessons for today’s threatened species.
Biologists have used ancient DNA, preserved in fossil bones for millennia, to study the evolution of large species, but now they can employ it to study small animals like lizards and frogs.
A new study doubles the age of ancient DNA in sub-Saharan Africa, revealing how people moved, mingled and had children together over the last 50,000 years.
Top contributors
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Senior Lecturer in Ancient DNA, University of Otago
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Associate Professor of Anthropology, Rice University
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Assistant Curator of Human Evolution., University of Alberta
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DPhil Student, University of Oxford
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Professor of Genetics and of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
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Mathematics Lecturer and Ancient DNA Researcher, University of Adelaide
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Postdoctoral Researcher, Swansea University
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Research scientist, Griffith University
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PhD Student, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
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Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Zoology, University of Otago
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Associate Professor of Archaeology, Griffith University
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Professor of Evolutionary Biology, Griffith University
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Professor, Griffith University
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Canada Research Chair in Human Evolutionary Studies, and Professor of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University
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Postdoctoral research fellow, Griffith University
