"Otzi", the 5,300 year old "iceman" has had his genome sequenced

[newyorklily]

We now know a lot more about the 5,300 year old body that was found in the Alps.

Iceman's DNA reveals health risks and relations by Ewen Callaway

The world’s most famous frozen corpse has had his genome sequenced. An international team has today published the almost complete DNA sequence of Ötzi the Tyrolean Iceman in Nature Communications¹, and has found clues as to the whereabouts of his closest living relations.
Hikers discovered Ötzi’s 5,300-year-old body in the Alps near the Italian–Austrian border in 1991. It was well preserved, and has become one of the most studied cadavers in science. Researchers have already discovered that Ötzi suffered from hardened arteries and tooth cavities, bore tattoos and gorged on ibex before dying with an arrow lodged in his back — but there is still more information to be gained from his body.

And this part intrigued me the most.

In 2008, scientists reported² the complete sequence of DNA taken from Ötzi’s cellular mitochondria. It contained mutations not found in present-day populations, and led to speculation that the iceman had belonged to a people that has vanished from Europe.

I wonder who those people were.

Read more here http://www.nature.com/news/iceman-s-...ations-1.10130

[southerncross]

I had read somewhere too that he had decedents from as far away as Sicily according to his DNA. Of course, that far back, Sicily and the Italian peninsula were joined due to the lowered water levels of the Mediterranean. His family clearly got around.

[norenrad]

Strange, but I just thought of all those Conan books I read when I was younger.

[norenrad]

I also read somewhere that humans used to have more traits than they do now. Seems they can trace this to somewhere near the time of the great flood.