DNA from skeletons thousands of years old may reveal what our ancestors looked like.
Forensic scientists can analyse DNA taken from a modern crime scene and, based on mutations in one gene, determine whether it belongs to someone with red hair and fair skin or not. But this technique does not work for fragmented ancient DNA because it requires long sequences.
Diane Schmidt of the University of G枚ttingen in Germany has developed a refined test for these mutations based on very short strands of DNA of the sort likely to be found in ancient, badly degraded samples.
Advertisement
The new technique might help answer questions about when people with dark skin moving out of Africa adapted to the less intense light of the north by developing fairer skin. It could also tell us what Neanderthals looked like.
鈥淲herever you see drawings or models in museums of Neanderthals, they always have black hair 鈥� but did they really?鈥� asks Susanne Hummel, who supervised Schmidt鈥檚 work.