Scientists Crack 4000 Year Old "Iceman" DNA - Artists Rendering

Scientists crack ancient iceman's DNA code

By Emily Bourke for AM

Posted 5 hours 53 minutes ago

Artist's impression: the genome revealed physical traits including a tendency for baldness (Nuka Godfredsen)

New research on a clump of hair found buried deep in the ice of Greenland has revealed a snapshot of what ancient man looked like.

To date DNA sequencing has used modern samples from living people, but this is the first time material from an extinct culture has been used.

For the first time scientists have sequenced the entire genome of an ancient man by using a sample of hair that was extracted from the permafrost.

It has revealed some of ancient man's physical traits, including his tendency for baldness.

The findings, published in the latest issue of Nature, have also challenged conventional wisdom on migration patterns of humans 5,000 years ago.

Professor David Lambert, an expert on evolutionary biology at Queensland's Griffith University, says he has analysed the research into the 4,000 year old man, who has been named as Inuk.

"He was very dark, he had very dark hair, he had a tendency for baldness and dark-coloured skin," he said.
"They even were able to pinpoint what kind of wax he had in his ears.

"This is historic, truly historic because for the very first time we're getting a snapshot of what our ancestors looked like. And I think that's pretty remarkable."

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