Wonder why they haven’t tried that.
I think the bone was very soft due to chemical action, thus likely no DNA.
Hi, Coyote!
Yeah, I have run into problems with soft bone. I tried three samples on one skeleton and got nothing. But one just about 500 years older had a nice tooth, and the lab got mtDNA on the first try.
The Hobbits are more than twice as old as the ones I had, which makes it much more difficult, but there are a few labs now that are having pretty good success with those older samples.
And they sequenced a couple of Neanderthals, so I think its just a matter of time before they are successful with a Hobbit tooth.