Thursday, April 19, 2007

DNA analysis of mummy

http://tinyurl.com/yq54mz (media.www.studlife.com)
This website allowed me to look at both pages once, but when I attempted to view the pages for a second time, asked me to log in or subscribe.
"Washington University researchers have recently made a series of important discoveries based on examinations of the bones and DNA of a mummy recently added to the permanent collection of the St. Louis Science Center. . . . Anne Bowcock, professor of genetics, medicine and pediatrics, extracted and sequenced the baby mummy's DNA. She took specimens from four places where the mummy had already been partially unwrapped on the left side of its head and on its shoulder. 'The mummy was very hardened, like wood. We used thick needles to get some material. We removed a match-head sized piece of bone,' said Bowcock. Bowcock said that contamination had initially been a concern because mummy DNA assessments often contain DNA from people who have handled the mummy. Because she was able to take specimens directly from the bone, she is fairly confident in the results."
The second page of the article went on to say that the DNA indicates a possible European parentage on either maternal or paternal side for the mummy, and that this is entirely plausible given the Graeco-Roman date of the mummy.

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