Posted on 12/30/2005 5:03:20 PM PST by blam
The Japan Times, March 9, 1997
Descendant of Stone Age skeleton found
LONDON (Reuter) British scientists Saturday celebrated their feat of tracing a living descendant of a 9,000-year-old skeleton and establishing the world's oldest known family tree.
In an astonishing piece of detective work, they matched mitochondrial DNA material extracted from the tooth cavity of Britain's oldest complete skeleton with that of a 42-year-old history teacher, Adrian Targett. The genetic material showed without doubt that Targett is a direct descendant through his mother's line of the skeleton known as Cheddar Man, which was found in 1903 in caves in Cheddar Gorge in southwest England.
"It is extraordinary that the DNA survives at all, but we were able to extract it and sequence it," said Bryan Sykes of Oxford University's Institute of Molecular Medicine. "They would have shared a common ancestor about 10,000 years ago, so they are related."
Targett lives about a kilometer from the caves where Cheddar Man was found. Previous tests have shown that Cheddar Man suffered a violent death at the age of about 23 in 7150 B.C.
The Oxford University team spent months analyzing samples from the skeleton before taking DNA swabs from about 20 local people whose families had lived in the Cheddar area for generations.
Targett, who teaches modern history, said he took part only to make up the numbers.
"I was astonished when the scientists said I was the descendant. Appropriately enough, I am a history teacher, but I have to admit I know next to nothing about Cheddar Man. I suppose I really should try to include him in my family tree," he said.
Targett can now boast a lineage millennia older than that of Britain's royal family, which traces its heritage back to A.D. 829.
The oldest previously recorded relative was the great-great-great-great-grandfather of Confucius, who lived in China in the eighth century B.C.
Scientists said the odds of finding a match were not as enormous as might appear, because of the relatively small number of people who lived in Britain during the Stone Age.
Sykes said the discovery strengthened the theory that the ancestors of modern-day Britons were hunter-gatherers rather than farmers.
"There has been an idea that most modern European are descended from farmers that came in from the Middle East about 10,000 years ago, reaching Britain about 6,000 years ago," Sykes told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. "This kind of evidence shows that is probably not true, and that modern Britons are in fact descended from the earlier inhabitants like Cheddar Man who existed on hunting and gathering and who were not farmers."
Scientists said they were hoping to use the same technique of sampling mitochondrial DNA to prove whether Neanderthals, who died out about 25,000 years ago, were linked to modern humans or were a completely different species.
Professor Chris Stringer, a researcher at the Natural History Museum, said, "This work may finally let us end a 150-year-old argument which has existed since a Neanderthal man fossil was first found."
Targett, an only child who has no children, was still coming to terms with the idea of having a Stone Age man as a relative.
But his wife, Catherine, said, "Maybe this explains why he likes his steaks rare."
Golly Ned, inane comments are one of the primary reasons for coming to FR, especially truly funny, clever inane comments like "where is Gouda man". LOL
Perhaps one of these days we'll log on to find this GGG ping:
"Ancient Stick in the Mud Discovered - Identified as Buffaloe Head"
Also a good thing about all us inane comment guys is that we keep bumping a thread and making other people aware of it
Yeppers. Aside from the inane comments, I truly learn alot from FR, especially the GGG threads. The bonfires of the inanities serve merely as humorous thread-warmers. :-)
I like mine extra-sharp. Goes better with beer that way.
You be careful with that axe, Eugene.
I'm stunned. I figured they'd be lucky to find any DNA in the tooth cavity of a living Brit, ket alone one that died 9000 years ago.
April 2006 bump.
They killed him and took the cheese a long time ago.
9,000 years, and he lives a kilometer from the cave.
That is ... amazing. I don't think my nomadic family has ever stayed put for an entire generation.
That means we can enjoy this thread again in a few years !!!!!!!
The scientist says this: "They would have shared a common ancestor about 10,000 years ago, so they are related."
I see no evidence presented that Mr. Taggart is an actual descendant of Cheddar Man. They just have a shared ancestor. Cheddar Man could have been the bachelor uncle of the guy whose line later went on to produce the history teacher.
not me ...Im not growin up(Peter Pan Syndrome Survivor)
It appears that the core British DNA is very ancient and is still there. All the subsequent immigrants and invasions have had little influence on that core group. The (original) core group of Brits came from a Franco-Spanish (Iberia) refuge before the Younger Dryas and were influenced years later by additional immigrants from Iberia.
Most of the Europeans can place their homeland during the Ice Age to this Iberian Refuge and only thousands of years later were they influenced by other 'outsiders.'
Fascinating stuff. How long ago was britain under ice?
“I guess that I may be missing something, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out what it is.”
Possibly that they only tested 20 people? There have been a lot of people move into England since 7150BC, after all. If they tested everyone in town, they would probably get more hits, but quite a few more misses, too.
|
|
GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution. |
|
|
How many people do you think are going to get that ancient Pink Floyd reference?
Me!Me!
That was one of my favs.
They only tested a handful of people living in country. Cheddar man may have thousands of relatives living elsewhere.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.