| Author |
Message |
    
Cavebear
flint knapper
Username: Cavebear
Post Number: 1166
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, August 05, 2004 - 2:59 am: |     |
"DNA from skeletons thousands of years old may reveal what our ancestors looked like".
"Diane Schmidt of the University of Gottingen in Germany has developed a refined test for these mutations based on very short strands of DNA..."
"This new technique might help answer questions about when people with dark skin moving out of Africa developed to less intense light..."
From NewScientist magazine.
This technique may be able to determine whether individuals had red hair or fair skin. It might tell us whether Neanderthals had black hair or not, etc.
I thought I was wrong once, but it turned out I was mistaken about that. |
Sidescraper_gal
gatherer
Username: Sidescraper_gal
Post Number: 189
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, August 05, 2004 - 4:51 am: | |
Cavebear:
I saw this article last week, and it *looked* interesting. Now whether it will tell us what color hair and skin Neandertals had, is another question altogether.
Anne G |
Pine
storyteller
Username: Pine
Post Number: 541
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, August 05, 2004 - 4:54 am: | |
Will they be able to determine how much body hair they had? Are they going to look into Neandertal FoxP2 gene (suspected to be related to grammatical language)? What method are they using?
"Mommy, you are not always wrong!" - my daughter, almost 6. |
Sidescraper_gal
gatherer
Username: Sidescraper_gal
Post Number: 192
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, August 05, 2004 - 5:24 am: | |
Pine:
About all *I* know about it is, that they can do something to retrieve usable information out of very short strands of "ancient" DNA, which is often degraded.
Anne G |
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