Australian researchers have examined mitochondrial DNA preserved in chicken bones from archaeological sites in Europe, Thailand, the Pacific, Chile, the Dominican Republic, and Spanish colonial sites in Florida, and determined that they all shared an ancient ancestor. “All of our domestic chickens are descended from a few hens that I like to think of as the […]

Scientists have analyzed proteins produced by the human immune system and determined that a 15-year-old Andean Incan girl, whose mummified remains were discovered in 1999, suffered from a chronic respiratory infection at the time of her death some 500 years ago. X-rays of her lungs showed signs of the infection as well. “Pathogen detection in ancient […]