They also took samples from a block of frozen alpine soil taken from next to Ötzi’s body back in 1991
·2 min read
Compiled by KHAO Editorial
— aggregated from 1 source + 10 references discovered via search.
See llms.txt for citation guidance.
◌ Single Source
Ars Technica already know a bit about Ötzi’s gut microbes thanks to a 2019 study, but Sarhan and his colleagues wanted the bigger picture.
Key facts
After he died in the Ötztal Alps, the Copper Age man now known as Ötzi lay alone and forgotten for 5,300 years, until a group of hikers stumbled on his freeze-dried remains in 1991
And when Sarhan and his colleagues compared samples taken in 2010 to those taken in 2019, they saw longer fragments and less damage, on average—in other words, there was more recent DNA in the mix
The chamber is a brisk -6º Celsius, with 99 percent humidity carefully maintained by a spray of UV-treated water
They also took samples from a block of frozen alpine soil taken from next to Ötzi’s body back in 1991
Summary
Ötzi the Iceman, Europe’s most famous mummy, is crawling with microbes, some long dead, some still eking out a living after thousands of years, and some modern. After he died in the Ötztal Alps, the Copper Age man now known as Ötzi lay alone and forgotten for 5,300 years, until a group of hikers stumbled on his freeze-dried remains in 1991. Microbiologist Mohamed S. Sarhan and his colleagues cultured some of the samples, and also put some through a process called shotgun metagenomics, which involves sequencing all the bits of DNA floating around in a sample.