Canadians help use DNA to unlock secrets of Europe’s first farmers
Canadian scientists are part of an international team that has used the genetics from bodies thousands of years old to reveal the secrets of how agriculture first came to Europe.
“This was the source from where most of the farming spread to western Europe and northern Europe,” said Damian Labuda of the University of Montreal.
Labuda is one of the co-authors of a paper published Wednesday in Nature about using new analytical tools to peer into the genetic makeup of 225 people from the ancient past in what is now southeastern Europe. The human remains were anywhere from 2,500 to 14,000 years old.
Previously, scientists had to rely on artifacts such as tools or pottery shards found with bodies to guess at ancient movements of people. It wasn’t the most reliable method, said Bence Viola of the University of Toronto, another co-author.