Story of the plague uncovered by scientists studying historical teeth
NewsPosted by: can.faik 16th January 2018
The Horizon magazine has revealed that scientists have been able to identify fatal diseases from the past 5, 000 years using fossil traces found in human teeth found in mass graves and archaeological excavations around the world.
Professor Johannes Krause, director of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Germany, used molecular fossil records to build a genetic profile of Yersinia pestis – the organism behind the Black Death that ravaged Europe in the 14th century.
Horizon magazine has noted that her team isolated the remnants of the bacteria from the skeletal remains and were then able to trace the bugs’ evolutionary past. Yersinia pestis could be found as far back as the last stone age, then the Justinian Plague (targeting the Roman empire in the sixth century) and lastly the Black Death.
For full insight into the story, follow this link: https://horizon-magazine.eu/article/skeleton-teeth-and-historical-photography-are-retelling-story-plague_en.html
