Posted on 08/01/2007 2:00:38 PM PDT by blam
Black Death casts a genetic shadow over England
12:26 01 August 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Colin Barras
Black Death as illustrated in a 15th century bible
The Black Death continues to cast a shadow across England. Although the modern English population is more cosmopolitan than ever, the plagues known as the Black Death killed so many people in the Middle Ages that, to this day, genetic diversity is lower in England than it was in the 11th century, according to a new analysis.
Rus Hoelzel at the University of Durham, UK and his colleagues looked at the mitochondrial DNA from human remains at 4th and 11th century archaeological sites in England, and compared them to samples from the modern population stored on DNA databases such as GenBank. They found there was more variation in the ancient mitochondrial DNA sequences than in modern sequences.
Hoelzel thinks random genetic drift may have lowered genetic diversity naturally. But the large unexpected drop in diversity was more likely to have been caused by population crashes following major outbreaks of the Black Death in England during the 1340s and the 1660s.
"The main factors in support of a role for plague are the timing and the fact that it affected different families [to a differing degree]," says Hoelzel.
Vulnerable families
The Black Death did not reach England until the mid-14th century. No-one knows exactly what caused it, with the bubonic plague bacterium Yersinia pestis, and various viruses all having been implicated at some point.
However, it is known that plague affected some families more than others, so their mitochondrial DNA would have been less common among survivors, Hoelzel says.
"I'm not at all surprised with the result," says Susan Scott at the University of Liverpool, UK. "We're talking about one of the worst disasters humans
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
GGG Ping.
“Bring out your dead!”
bookmark
It’d also be interesting to check out the same with cholera outbreaks.
They need to worry about the coming “Green Death”...
"The epidemic of cocoliztli from1545 to 1548 killed an estimated 5 million to 15 million people, or up to 80% of the native population of Mexico (Figure 1). In absolute and relative terms the 1545 epidemic was one of the worst demographic catastrophes in human history, approaching even the Black Death of bubonic plague, which killed approximately 25 million in western Europe from 1347 to 1351 or about 50% of the regional population."
"The cocoliztli epidemic from 1576 to 1578 cocoliztli epidemic killed an additional 2 to 2.5 million people, or about 50% of the remaining native population.
PING
“I’m not dead...”
“Throughout the recent past, there have been movements from the Middle East into southern Europe, and the Middle East population retains a great mix and diversity,” he says.
you know what this means. “ok folks we have to keep letting them in. Don’t want black death, you see?”
Lucky they didn’t have Rachel Carson walking around in 1340 to outlaw rat traps....
ok I misspoke! less genetic diversity didn’t result in the black death but it could lead to other problems
Thanks for posting!
Good read on this era is A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman.
it’s true ,look at Dodi and Princess Diana
Especially when you consider thats its likely any island population will at large be less diversified than a much larger free ranging population. I’m certain that Japan, Iceland, Greenland, Nova Scotia, Australia and nearly every island dwelling populace will show similar trends.
“Good read on this era is A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman.”
Read it, great book. I like Tuchman.
I’m thinking that the slaughter of young men in WWI would not have helped. On the other hand, maybe the influx of American GIs in WWII helped the diversity of the gene pool. :)
Don’t forget the Normans creating the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. They brought lots of Scandinavian and French blood to Sicily.
Ring around the rosey,......Typical description of a buboe.
a pocket full of poseys,....Nosegays of flowers were carried
ashes, ashes,...............to cover the smell of death.
we all fall down............The bodies were burned, all die.
I just love nursery rhymes, don’t you?
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.