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Ancient iceman probably has no modern relatives
Yahoo News ^ | October, 30, 2008 | Reporting by Michael Kahn

Posted on 10/30/2008 2:49:25 PM PDT by MissCalico

Ancient iceman probably has no modern relatives

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Thu Oct 30, 2:21 pm ET

Reuters – An undated handout file photo shows "Otzi", Italy's prehistoric iceman. "Otzi", …

LONDON (Reuters) – "Otzi," Italy's prehistoric iceman, probably does not have any modern day descendants, according to a study published Thursday.

A team of Italian and British scientists who sequenced his mitochondrial DNA -- which is passed down through the mother's line -- found that Otzi belonged to a genetic lineage that is either extremely rare or has died out.

Otzi's 5,300-year-old corpse was found frozen in the Tyrolean Alps in 1991.

"Our research suggests that Otzi's lineage may indeed have become extinct," Martin Richards of Leeds University in Britain, who worked on the study, said in a statement.

"We'll only know for sure by sampling intensively in the Alpine Valleys where Otzi was born."

The findings published in the journal Current Biology reverses previous research from 1994 on a small section of Otzi's DNA that suggested the so-called "Iceman" had relatives living in Europe. But Richards and colleagues said their analysis confirmed that Otzi belonged to a previously unidentified lineage that has not been seen to date in modern European populations.

Scientists were thrilled to find Otzi's mummified body had remained frozen, and so almost perfectly preserved, for more than 5,000 years. An arrowhead was found in his left shoulder, suggesting Otzi did not simply freeze to death while climbing the high mountains. Evidence shows he was likely a hunte . . .


(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: ancientautopsies; dna; emptydna; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; iceman; mtdna; mummy; oetzi; otzi; superseded; theiceman
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To: MissCalico
...probably has no modern relatives

Otzi was gay?

Might explain why somebody was shootin' arrows at him.

21 posted on 10/30/2008 4:26:27 PM PDT by uglybiker (1f u c4n r34d th1s u r34lly n33d 2 g3t l41d)
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To: MissCalico
"In those days, in those isolated, sparsely populated areas, his kids might have shared his maternal DNA anyway.

Only the females.

Last year I had the DNA of my extended family analysed. Mainly we're, R1b's, H's, U5a's which are the most common haplogroups in Europe. My mother's haplogroup 'V' was a suprise...52% of the Skolt Sa'ami (northern Finland reindeer herders) have haplogroup 'V'.

My dad's mother (Mrs Smith) was/is related to 9,000 year old Cheddar Man.

22 posted on 10/30/2008 4:33:34 PM PDT by blam
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To: blam
Only the females

I guess it's possible a son of his could have had his maternal DNA if he bred with a maternal cousin.

My dad's mother (Mrs Smith) was/is related to 9,000 year old Cheddar Man.

Cheddar Man is so COOL! Can you imagine living in the same place where some of your relatives have been for 9,000 years? In a world of constant upheaval and migration caused by wars, invasions and modern travel? In Britain alone they had the Romans, Angles, Saxons, Picts, Scots, Franks, Vikings, Normans and various other Germanic types (have I forgotten some?)

It seems so unlikely to find a genetic line of hardy inhabitants surviving right there where they've always been. Really puts a *face* on pre-historic history.

23 posted on 10/30/2008 5:22:16 PM PDT by MissCalico
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To: Siberian-psycho

PING - being siberian I figure this is right down your alley


24 posted on 10/30/2008 6:11:22 PM PDT by swampdweller
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To: MissCalico
"It seems so unlikely to find a genetic line of hardy inhabitants surviving right there where they've always been. Really puts a *face* on pre-historic history."

This is an amazing story.

And my ex-wife complained that I never wanted to go anywhere.
Mr Targett hasn't ventured more that a mile from his 9,000 year old family homestead.

Professor Stephen Oppenheimer in his book Origins Of The British has found that the DNA of the UK is very old and little changed since the end of the Ice Age.

My yDNA is R1b (DYS390-23) which indicates my male ancestors were Danes who went to Ireland and stayed...maybe as a Viking?

25 posted on 10/30/2008 8:45:49 PM PDT by blam
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To: blam
And my ex-wife complained that I never wanted to go anywhere. Mr Targett hasn't ventured more that a mile from his 9,000 year old family homestead.

Lol . . . I can almost imagine all your thousands of great-Grannies over the millennia yelling at their hubbies that they never take them out of Cheddar. Stonehenge should have been a short trip and it did have wooden post structures at about that time.

26 posted on 10/31/2008 11:26:28 AM PDT by MissCalico
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Genome-Wide Analysis of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms
Uncovers Population Structure in No. Europe
PLoS ONE | October 24, 2008
Salmela E, Lappalainen T, Fransson I, Andersen PM, Dahlman-Wright K, et al.
Posted on 10/30/2008 2:00:48 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2120039/posts


27 posted on 10/31/2008 3:50:04 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_______Profile finally updated Saturday, October 11, 2008 !!!)
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· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic ·

 
Gods
Graves
Glyphs
Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
 

· Google · Archaeologica · ArchaeoBlog · Archaeology magazine · Biblical Archaeology Society ·
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28 posted on 10/31/2008 3:53:15 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_______Profile finally updated Saturday, October 11, 2008 !!!)
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To: Palter
This diagram works for most people, but not for folks with Down's Syndrome and a few other conditions. F is for father, M for mother; each of us has up to 64 great-great-great-great-grandcestors; no more than 46 of them has had even one chromosome pair reach you; even with the occasional crossing stream, there's no more than 46, and with crossing streams, could be less.

For those who don't know, this doesn't mean the other 18 (and all of their ancestors, plus half of the ancestors of the 46) are not your ancestors -- DUH! IOW, just because the chromosomes don't make it through, doesn't mean that Oetzi (for example) has no living descendants.
F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M
F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M
F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M
F M F M F M F M
F M F M
F M
YOU

29 posted on 07/09/2010 10:27:38 AM PDT by SunkenCiv ("Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others." -- Otto von Bismarck)
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