4,000-year-old strands of hair unravel human travels

Inuk: an artist's impression

All that is left of him are four tufts of hair and four fragments of bone, yet the DNA of an Eskimo who died 4,000 years ago in Greenland has shed new light on human history.

Inuk — named after the word forman in the Greenland Inuit language — is the first ancient human being to have his genetic code read, offering important insights into his biology, appearance and migrations.

DNA extracted from Inuk’s hair has revealed that he had dark skin, brown eyes and shovel-shaped front teeth — and that his ear wax had a dry consistency, making him more vulnerable to infection. His thick black locks may have been thinning: his genes suggest a predisposition to baldness.

The results also highlight an ancient migration previously unknown. Inuk’s DNA shows that he was more closely related to the Koryak and Chukchi Eskimo tribes of modern Siberia than to the Inuit of Canada and Greenland.

courtesy by Times online