Revealing the Appearance of European Ancestors: Dark Skin, Black Eyes, and Baldness – Otzi’s Genetic History

European Ancestors. PHOTOS/MIRRORS

MENLO PARK – The appearance of people’s ancestors Europe scientists have reconstructed. It was revealed that the ancestors of Europeans had dark skin, black eyes, and hair that tended to be bald.

Compiled from Metro, Thursday (17/8/2023), this conclusion was drawn from the 5,300 year old mummified structure found in melting ice in the Alps in 1991 which was named Otzi, which was combined with genetic traces of several other prehistoric European genomes .

Scientists found that among the hundreds of early Europeans who lived at the same time as Otzi, and whose genomes are now available, the ancestors of Europeans had more in common with the ancestors of early Anatolian farmers.

“Genomic analysis revealed phenotypic traits such as high skin pigmentation, dark eye color and male pattern baldness in stark contrast to previous reconstructions showing a light-skinned, light-eyed and moderately hairy male,” said Johannes Krause of Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany.

“It was previously thought that the mummy’s skin had darkened during his storage in ice, but it is possible that what we are seeing now is actually mostly the color of Otzi’s original skin,” he continued implying that his latest findings were inversely proportional to previous findings.

To note, Otzi himself managed to attract world attention in 1991 when he was discovered by climbers at an altitude of 3,210 meters above sea level.

Upon investigation, Otzi was a man aged 25 to 35 years who was 1.6 meters tall and weighed 50 kg.

It was initially believed he had fallen victim to exposure or exhaustion while crossing the Alps and froze to death, but an X-ray examination in 2001 showed that an arrowhead lodged in his left shoulder, suggesting he most likely bled to death.

Now researchers have used advanced technology to produce a much higher quality genome to learn more about its genetic history and discover some surprises. The researchers said earlier pictures of Otzi also had his hair wrong.

(wbs)

2023-08-17 10:05:35
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