Researchers in France have reconstructed the largest ancestral human record ever using ancient DNA, creating two extensive Neolithic family trees that span multiple generations. The family trees are based on a 6,700-year-old funerary site known as Gurgy in the Paris Basin region.
Using ancient DNA, archaeologists in France have pieced together two elaborate Neolithic family trees that span multiple generations, making them the largest ancestral human record ever reconstructed.
"The size of a family tree that huge for that time period" was mind boggling, lead study author Maïté Rivollat, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Archaeology at Ghent University in Belgium, told Live Science."We realized that we could explore social aspects of this community."The site was composed of a single graveyard with no monument or grave goods, and many of the bones were"not well preserved and corroded," Rivollat said.
By analyzing the mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome data, as well as each individual's age at death and genetic sex, the researchers constructed two family trees. The first tree connected 64 individuals across seven generations and is the largest to date, and the second contained 12 people from five generations, according to the study.
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