Posted on 02/06/2008 5:34:40 PM PST by blam
Lice from mummies provide clues to ancient migrations
By John Noble Wilford Published: February 6, 2008
When two pre-Columbian individuals died 1,000 years ago, arid conditions in the region of what is now Peru naturally mummified their bodies, down to the head lice in their long, braided hair.
This was all scientists needed, they reported Wednesday, to extract well-preserved louse DNA and establish that the parasites had accompanied their human hosts in the original peopling of the Americas, probably as early as 15,000 years ago. The DNA matched that of the most common type of louse known to exist worldwide, now and before European colonization of the New World.
The findings thus absolve Columbus of responsibility for at least one unintended tragic consequence to the well-being of the people he discovered and called Indians. The Europeans may have introduced diseases, most notably smallpox and measles, but not the most common of lice, as had been suspected.
Of possibly greater importance, evolutionary biologists say, the new research technique may become a tool in studying other mummies for valuable insights into human migrations and the spread of disease. Lice have been found on Egyptian mummies, for example, but these have yet to undergo genetic examination.
The scientists conducted independent studies on samples from the two mummies, which were among those collected between 1999 and 2002 in the high coastal desert of southern Peru by Sonia Guillen, a Peruvian anthropologist. Looters had destroyed the bodies, leaving only the heads of people who had died around the year 1025. Lice have also been recovered from New World mummies as old as 10,000 years.
The results of the DNA tests by the two laboratories were identical, the researchers said. They showed that 11th-century Americans already hosted the prevalent type-A strain of lice.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Is it possible to use this technique to tell where Hellen Thomas has been?
Sure. It's your assignment to obtain her pubic lice.
Nuts — I wantwd to post IBHT
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“Lice to see you, Mummy.”
That’s a really lousy story, if you ask me.
This is the pest story I’ve read in some time.
Nit me.
Itch got to be better than anything for some time, no?
NO. And don’t be so crabby.
LOL...
Okay, okay...
thinkin’... thinkin’...
YAY, me!
;o])
Clovis First is dead.
Ping.
Those little critters must be resistent to the old blue ointment.
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