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A more than 50-year-old Utah cold case murder has been identified as another victim of the infamous serial killer Ted Bundy using advanced DNA techniques.

A genetic study of Neanderthal remains recovered from Denisova Cave in Siberia's Altai Mountains revealed that two individuals who lived 10,000 years apart belonged to closely related lineages linked to each other by a common ancestor, according to a Live Science report. The first individual, known as D17, was male and lived about 110,000 years ago. The second genome belonged to a female, known as D5, who lived about 120,000 years ago. "It is likely that Denisova Cave was part of a broader landscape used repeatedly by these Neanderthal populations over time, rather than a site occupied by a single...

The AFP reports that a 600-year-old grape seed recovered from a medieval waste pit in northern France is genetically identical to grapes used today to make pinot noir wine. A team of researchers led by Ludovic Orlando of the French National Center for Scientific Research sequenced the genomes of 54 grape seeds dating from about 2300 B.C. to the medieval period. The oldest grapes in the study were found to have come from wild vines. The scientists determined that early farmers began using clonal propagation techniques as early as 625 to 500 B.C., when domesticated grapevines were grown in southern...

A Clay County man's DNA was a match with a sailor named John Judson Campbell, a U.S. Navy sailor from World War II he had no idea existed until now. DNA matches newly identified WWII POW's remains to surprised Florida family | 3:34 First Coast News | 462K subscribers | 39,006 views | March 26, 2026

A decades-old cold case has reached a breakthrough, with a suspect arrested in connection with the 1994 murder of Clive Bland in Pacific Beach. Detectives with the San Diego Police Department’s Cold Case Unit say 50-year-old Jeffry Brandenburg was arrested on Thursday in Santa Cruz. He has been booked for the murder of 40-year-old Clive Bland. Bland was stabbed on January 2, 1994, and was found slumped over on the porch of 778 Tourmaline Street. But evidence showed the stabbing happened on the beach near Tourmaline Surf Park. Police suggested Bland had gotten into his car and appeared he had...

According to a statement released by the University of Oxford, domesticated dogs were spread across Europe and Anatolia and living with hunter-gatherers by 14,000 years ago. Researchers led by Lachie Scarsbrook and Greger Larson of the University of Oxford analyzed genomes taken from dog remains recovered at Upper Paleolithic sites, including Pınarbaşı in Turkey and Gough's Cave in England, and two Mesolithic sites in Serbia. These dog genomes were then compared with the genomes of more than 1,000 ancient and modern dogs and wolves from around the world. "Not only has this discovery pushed back the earliest direct evidence of...

La Brújula Verde reports that the excavation of a necropolis in southwestern Italy by researchers from the Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts, and Landscape for the Provinces of Salerno and Avellino has revealed 34 Samnite burials dated to between the fourth and third centuries B.C. The graves were grouped by family, and most of them consisted of a pit covered with tiles arranged like a small roof. Two of the burials had chambers lined with travertine blocks, while another had a tufa chamber. Graves holding the remains of men also contained spearheads or javelin points. Rings and brooches for fastening...

According to a La Brújula Verde report, eight burials at the Childrey Warren site in southeastern England have been analyzed. In all, the rural cemetery contained more than 30 burials. The eight burials in the study, including the remains of newborns and adults who were more than 45 years old at the time of death, have been dated to the fourth century A.D. One of the individuals had been beheaded, with the skull placed beneath the feet. Ancient DNA samples taken from these remains show that six of the eight people were closely related—sisters, paternal first cousins, and paternal and...

...the idea behind the Leonardo da Vinci DNA Project, which aims to accurately answer a simple question: since we couldn't sequence Leonardo's DNA in the 1500s, are his bones at Amboise Castle really his?To get there, the team plans to compare DNA from Leonardo's remains with profiles from his living relatives -- and, if the samples check out, assemble more of Leonardo's genome.Because the legendary Renaissance artist had no children, researchers Alessandro Vezzosi and Agnese Sabato of the Leonardo Da Vinci Heritage Association started with old-school genealogy, publishing Genìa Da Vinci. Genealogy and Genetics for Leonardo's DNA. Their tree follows...

According to a statement released by the Nature Publishing Group, Anopheles leucosphyrus mosquitoes may have evolved to feed on humans in Southeast Asia. Upasana Shyamsunder Singh of Vanderbilt University, Catherine Walton of the University of Manchester, and their colleagues sequenced DNA from 38 modern-day mosquitoes from 11 species in the leucosphyrus group. Then the researchers employed computer models and estimates of DNA mutation rates to reconstruct the evolution of these mosquitoes. The study suggests that the bugs switched from feeding on non-human primates to early humans in the region of Sundaland, an area including the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra, and...

Tradition holds that the eldest son of Genghis Khan, ruler of the Mongol Empire, founded the Golden Horde and was buried in Kazakhstan with his descendants. According to a statement released by the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW–Madison), an international team of researchers led by Ayken Askapuli of UW–Madison analyzed genomes taken from remains found in four Golden Horde tombs in Kazakhstan, and determined that their ancestors could be traced to the Mongolian plateau through their Y-chromosomes. “We saw evidence that their Y-chromosomes are part of a branch of the C3* cluster,” Askapuli said. Some 20 years ago, fragments of DNA...

According to a statement released by the University of Gdansk, evaluation of the remains of people who lived in what is now north-central Poland between 4100 and 1230 B.C. has revealed how their diets changed from the Neolithic period to the Bronze Age. Using radiocarbon dating, DNA analysis, and stable isotope measurements of carbon and nitrogen, a team led by Łukasz Pospieszny of the University of Gdansk suggests that Corded Ware communities of the late Neolithic period herded their animals in forests and wet river valleys. After several hundred years, however, their diet began to resemble that of nearby farmers,...

According to a statement released by Leiden University, a groundbreaking ancient DNA study has provided new information about a pivotal transitional period in prehistoric Europe. The research underscored the remarkable genetic stability in the Low Countries and shed new light on the mysterious origins of the so-called Bell Beaker culture. A team of geneticists and archaeologists analyzed the genomes of 112 individuals who lived in the Rhine–Meuse region of the Low Countries -- today's Netherlands, Belgium, and northwestern Germany -- between 8500 and 1700 b.c. The data revealed that when Europe's first farmers arrived from Anatolia around 4,500 years ago,...

New genetic research is reshaping how scientists understand ancient relationships between early humans and Neanderthals. A study published in Science suggests that mating between Homo sapiens women and Neanderthal men occurred more often than the reverse, leaving a lasting mark on the human genome. The finding helps explain a long-standing mystery in genetics. Modern humans carry small amounts of Neanderthal DNA across most of their genome, but almost none on the X chromosome. These gaps, known as Neanderthal deserts, puzzled scientists for years. Modern humans and Neanderthals split from a shared ancestor about 600,000 years ago. Human ancestors evolved in...

NEW YORK (AP) — Humans and Neanderthals cozied up from time to time when they lived in the same areas tens of thousands of years ago. But we don’t know much about who got with whom, or why. A new genetic analysis offers some ancient gossip: The pairings were more often female humans with male Neanderthals. How exactly this happened remains a huge question mark. Did human women venture into Neanderthal populations, or were the Neanderthal males drawn to larger human enclaves? Were these interactions peaceful, confusing, secretive or even violent? “I don’t know if we’ll ever get a definitive...

An Arizona couple allegedly found a pair of blood-stained gloves and a rock with a dried blood droplet in the desert a mile from Nancy Guthrie’s home — days after she was reported missing, according to a report. The couple, who asked to remain anonymous, stumbled upon the suspicious black gloves on the ground 10 feet apart off Campbell Avenue in the Catalina Foothills of Tucson on Feb. 11, KVOA reported on Friday. “Sure enough, it was a black glove in the desert. It appeared to have looked like it was ripped. It also appeared to look like it had...

“Investigators in Nancy Guthrie's case have turned their attention toward a pinky ring they believe her alleged abductor was wearing in chilling doorbell camera footage taken before she vanished. Meanwhile, TMZ announced on Wednesday that it has received a new 'sophisticated' ransom note in connection to missing Nancy, who is the mother of Today host Savannah Guthrie.“

A black glove found near the Arizona home of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie appears to match those worn by the suspect seen in a doorbell camera video, according to the FBI.The glove, which contains DNA evidence, was one of approximately 16 gloves collected by investigators in various areas near the house. Most of those gloves belonged to searchers who discarded them while working the area, the FBI said."The one with the DNA profile recovered is different and appears to match the gloves of the subject in the surveillance video," the FBI said in a statement.

Nearly 44 years after 13-year-old Sarah Geer was brutally raped and strangled to death in a Cloverdale alley, the girl’s murderer has been convicted, the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office announced. On Friday, a Sonoma County jury found 66-year-old James Oliver Unick guilty of the May 23, 1982, murder and found true that he committed a sexual assault during the commission of murder. Unick was ultimately identified as the suspect and arrested on July 22, 2024, after a cigarette he had smoked was collected by FBI agents and analyzed to be a match of DNA evidence at the scene of...

The unknown male DNA profile on a glove found two miles from the home of Nancy Guthrie has been run through the FBI’s DNA database – and did not result in any hits, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told Fox News chief correspondent Jonathan Hunt in an interview on Tuesday. DNA recovered from Guthrie's home also did not match records in the FBI database, Nanos said. The sheriff confirmed that the DNA on the glove was different from the DNA found inside the home. The FBI confirmed the news to Fox News Digital on Tuesday. The sheriff's department later provided...