Ancient DNA confirms New Mexico tribe's link to famed Chaco Canyon site
The Picuris Pueblo, a sovereign nation in New Mexico, has oral histories and cultural traditions that link the tribe to the region of Chaco Canyon, one of the ancient centers of Pueblo culture and society.
'We've been telling our stories as long as time immemorial,' said Picuris Lt. Gov. Craig Quanchello. But he said those traditions were often "overlooked and erased."
As members of the Picuris Pueblo seek a greater voice in shaping decisions about the future of Chaco Canyon, where debates about oil and gas drilling loom, leaders including Quanchello decided that using DNA sequencing to complement or corroborate their oral histories could be a useful tool. The group began a collaboration with an international team of geneticists.
"The DNA could help us protect" our heritage, he said. "Now we can say, 'This is ours, we need to protect it.'"
The findings, published Thursday in the journal Nature, show close links between the genomes of 13 current members of Picuris and ancient DNA recovered from 16 Picuris individuals who lived between 1300 A.D. and 1500 A.D. in or near Chaco Canyon.
'The results show a strong relationship between ancient and present-day Picuris,' said co-author Thomaz Pinotti, a geneticist at the University of Copenhagen.
The genetic analysis was led by the Picuris. The researchers said this model of collaboration contrasts with a long history of archaeologists and geneticists seizing and studying artifacts and remains without the consent of Indigenous groups.
'It wasn't an easy decision' to begin the collaboration with scientists, said co-author and Picuris Gov. Wayne Yazza. 'This is life-changing data.'
There are 19 Pueblo tribes in New Mexico. The new study does not refute the historic connections of other tribes to Chaco Canyon.
Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a UNESCO World Heritage site managed by the U.S. National Park Service. It is famous for sweeping desert vistas and for monumental sandstone structures — including multistory homes and ceremonial structures — built by ancestral Pueblos.
'It's super important that we don't talk about Chaco in the category of 'lost civilizations,' like the Egyptian pyramids or Stonehenge,' said Paul Reed, a preservation archaeologist at Archaeology Southwest, who was not involved in the study. That notion "is particularly damaging in this instance because it disenfranchises the Pueblo people who live all around the canyon to this day.'
Brian Vallo, a member of the Acoma Pueblo who leads the Chaco Heritage Tribal Association, said a current concern revolves around drilling and mining permits on federal land adjacent to the park, which also impact the environment within the canyon.
'We have these close connections because our ancestors migrated and built these places –- they remain central to the preservation of our own Indigenous culture,' said Vallo, who was not part of the research.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Magic mushrooms live up to their name by appearing to slow ageing
Psychedelic mushrooms are sometimes called 'magic' for their hallucinogenic effects which some proponents believe make them think more clearly and see things they would never ordinarily perceive. But going by findings published in Nature Partnering Journal Aging, the easily-harvested and widely-available wild fungi could be called magic for another reason: they appear to have anti-ageing properties. According to Baylor College of Medicine and Emory University in the US, the active psychedelic compound in the mushroom, known as psilocybin, "may extend both cellular and organismal lifespans." The team said that psilocybin "reduced multiple hallmarks of ageing in cells" and, depending on the dosages, "extended cellular lifespan up to 57%." The researchers also carried out tests on mice that showed psilocybin improving survival in older rodents. The mushrooms, and psilocybin in particular, have been shown to help depression patients and, but the physical effects outside the brain have gone uncharted. According to the research team, there are around 150 studies ongoing or recently completed looking at psilocybin's potential to treat not only depression but also cognitive disorders such as dementia. Last month, the American Cancer Society published findings of a second phase of tests that showed a "significant" reduction in depression among more than half of participants two years on from receiving a 25-milligram dose of psilocybin. "Our findings suggest that psilocybin has potent effects on the entire body, including anti-ageing properties, which also may contribute to the plethora of observed beneficial clinical outcomes," said Louise Hecker, associate professor of medicine – cardiovascular research at Baylor. "Our study provides the first experimental evidence demonstrating that psilocybin impacts hallmarks of ageing," the team said.
Los Angeles Times
7 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Hungary's oldest library is fighting to save 100,000 books from a beetle infestation
PANNONHALMA, Hungary — Tens of thousands of centuries-old books are being pulled from the shelves of a medieval abbey in Hungary in an effort to save them from a beetle infestation that could wipe out centuries of history. The 1,000-year-old Pannonhalma Archabbey is a sprawling Benedictine monastery that is one of Hungary's oldest centers of learning and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Restoration workers are removing about 100,000 handbound books from their shelves and carefully placing them in crates, the start of a disinfection process that aims to kill the tiny beetles burrowed into them. The drugstore beetle, also known as the bread beetle, is often found among dried foodstuffs like grains, flour and spices. But they also are attracted to the gelatin and starch-based adhesives found in books. They have been found in a section of the library housing around a quarter of the abbey's 400,000 volumes. 'This is an advanced insect infestation which has been detected in several parts of the library, so the entire collection is classified as infected and must be treated all at the same time,' said Zsófia Edit Hajdu, the chief restorer on the project. 'We've never encountered such a degree of infection before.' The beetle invasion was first detected during a routine library cleaning. Employees noticed unusual layers of dust on the shelves and then saw that holes had been burrowed into some of the book spines. Upon opening the volumes, burrow holes could be seen in the paper where the beetles chewed through. The abbey at Pannonhalma was founded in 996, four years before the establishment of the Kingdom of Hungary. Sitting upon a tall hill in northwestern Hungary, the abbey houses the country's oldest collection of books, as well as many of its earliest and most important written records. For over 1,000 years, the abbey has been among the most prominent religious and cultural sites in Hungary and all of Central Europe, surviving centuries of wars and foreign incursions such as the Ottoman invasion and occupation of Hungary in the 16th century. Ilona Ásványi, director of the Pannonhalma Archabbey library, said she is 'humbled' by the historical and cultural treasures the collection holds whenever she enters. 'It is dizzying to think that there was a library here a thousand years ago, and that we are the keepers of the first book catalogue in Hungary,' she said. Among the library's most outstanding works are 19 codices, including a complete Bible from the 13th century. It also houses several hundred manuscripts predating the invention of the printing press in the mid-15th century and tens of thousands of books from the 16th century. While the oldest and rarest prints and books are stored separately and have not been infected, Ásványi said any damage to the collection represents a blow to cultural, historical and religious heritage. 'When I see a book chewed up by a beetle or infected in any other way, I feel that no matter how many copies are published and how replaceable the book is, a piece of culture has been lost,' she said. To kill the beetles, the crates of books are being placed into tall, hermetically sealed plastic sacks from which all oxygen is removed. After six weeks in the pure nitrogen environment, the abbey hopes all the beetles will be destroyed. Before being reshelved, each book will be individually inspected and vacuumed. Any book damaged by the pests will be set aside for later restoration work. The abbey, which hopes to reopen the library at the beginning of next year, believes the effects of climate change played a role in spurring the beetle infestation as average temperatures rise rapidly in Hungary. Hajdu, the chief restorer, said higher temperatures have allowed the beetles to undergo several more development cycles annually than they could in cooler weather. 'Higher temperatures are favorable for the life of insects,' she said. 'So far we've mostly dealt with mold damage in both depositories and in open collections. But now I think more and more insect infestations will appear due to global warming.' The library's director said life in a Benedictine abbey is governed by a set of rules in use for nearly 15 centuries, a code that obliges them to do everything possible to save its vast collection. 'It says in the Rule of Saint Benedict that all the property of the monastery should be considered as of the same value as the sacred vessel of the altar,' Ásványi said. 'I feel the responsibility of what this preservation and conservation really means.' Spike writes for the Associated Press.
CNN
9 hours ago
- CNN
Scientists recover proteins from a 24 million-year-old rhino fossil. Are dinosaurs next?
Scientists have recovered ancient proteins from a fossilized rhinoceros tooth, breaking new ground in the study of ancient life on Earth. The 24 million-year-old tooth, which was unearthed in the Canadian Arctic, contains proteins that are 10 times older than the most ancient known DNA. Using the sample, scientists have now analyzed the oldest detailed protein sequence on record. 'Enamel is so hard it protects these proteins over deep time (long time scales),' said Ryan Sinclair Paterson, a postdoctoral researcher at the Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark who led the Canadian research. 'It's essentially like a vault. What we did was unlock this vault, at least for this specific fossil.' The study of ancient DNA preserved in bones, fossils and dirt has revolutionized archaeological science, pulling back the curtain on lost empires, mysterious clans, ice age creatures and previously unknown human species. Ancient proteins promise a similar revolution for fossils that are many millions of years old and currently beyond the chronological reach of ancient DNA. The study, which published July 9 in the scientific journal Nature, showcases the enormous potential of the field, known as paleoproteomics. Proteins, which are made up of sequences of amino acids, are more robust than DNA, a fragile molecule that degrades relatively easily. Although proteins contain less detailed information, they can help to elucidate a specimen's evolutionary history, diet, even in some cases the sex of a fossil. 'The next step is to demonstrate that it's not just one sample, one lucky strike,' said coauthor Enrico Cappellini, a professor at the University of Copenhagen's Globe Institute who has pioneered methods to extricate proteins from fossils and was involved in the Canadian research. 'But potentially there's a huge area of research that could be further clarified and then, if we really push it farther … we could even start to investigate dinosaurs,' he added. Cappellini and Paterson, along with colleagues at the University of York and the Canadian Museum of Nature, recovered sequences from seven proteins preserved inside the fossilized rhino tooth. Sequencing ancient proteins involves determining the order of amino acids in a sample. By comparing the sequences with those of living and extinct relatives, the scientists were able to glean information about the evolution of the rhino. The analysis revealed that it diverged from the same family as living rhinos about 41 million to 25 million years ago. 'In the fossil record, there were some crazy forms (of rhinoceros species). There's the woolly rhinoceros, and maybe you've heard of the Siberian unicorn with the gigantic horn,' Paterson said. 'What we were able to do is compare our mystery rhino with other forms and find out where it falls in the family tree.' Separate research, also published July 9 in the journal Nature, which sampled fossils from Kenya's Turkana Basin, suggests that biomolecules can survive for millions of years, even in searing, tropical environments. The study, which analyzed 10 mammal fossils, including the relatives of today's elephants, hippos and rhinos, was published by researchers at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum Conservation Institute and Harvard University. They recovered proteins from five of the fossils dated 1.5 million to 18 million years ago, and found that even in tropical regions with high temperatures scientists can extract prehistoric proteins, which can reveal links between ancient elephants and rhinos and their modern-day relatives. While the information contained in the Kenyan proteins wasn't as detailed as that found in the Canadian fossil, the authors said that their presence within enamel tissues in one of the world's warmest regions holds promise that proteins in much older fossils could be discovered. 'We were excitingly successful. We went back to about 18 million years. I think going back in time should be possible,' said study author Timothy Cleland, a physical scientist at the Museum Conservation Institute. The research on the Canadian fossil was 'sound and super interesting,' said Maarten Dhaenens, a researcher at the University of Ghent in Belgium who specializes in proteomics. However, Dhaenens, who wasn't involved in either study, said the methodology used on the Kenyan fossils was complex and less tested. The researchers' findings, he argued, are harder to interpret and warranted a more thorough assessment. 'The data is publicly available, so we should be able to verify their claims through manual validation, but this takes time,' he said via email. Evan Saitta, paleontologist and research associate at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, said it was 'shocking' to find proteins preserved within fossils at tropical latitudes and added that the findings needed replication. It had been previously assumed that cold temperatures were necessary to slow down the breakdown of proteins. 'If that is a true result … it should be very easy to replicate,' he noted. 'We should be able to go around all different fossil sites all over the world and find enamel peptides (proteins).' Getting proteins from fossils this old would be a palaeontologist's dream come true, said Matthew Collins, the McDonald Professor in Palaeoproteomics at the UK's University of Cambridge, who agreed that the research on the Canadian fossil was more convincing. Collins, like Saitta, was not involved in the new research. 'This is amazing. It's really exciting, but at the same time I've been disappointed so much in my career by thinking that we had very old proteins and we didn't,' added Collins, who has tried to recover proteins from dinosaur fossils. Collins and Saitta were part of a team that detected amino acids in a titanosaur eggshell fragment, according to research published in 2024. The egg was laid by a plant-eating sauropod, a huge, long-necked dinosaur that lived in the Late Cretaceous, shortly before dinosaurs went extinct 66 million years ago. However, the dinosaur eggshell lacked any identifiable protein sequences. Their results were akin to identifying five letters in a novel, revealing only a pattern of decay that showed there were once proteins in the eggshell, said Saitta. 'There's no sequence left, no information, just the little individual Lego building blocks of (amino acids),' Collins said. Discover your world Go beyond the headlines and explore the latest scientific achievements and fascinating discoveries. Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Getting protein information from a dinosaur tooth is a long shot, and Saitta noted that he had given up looking for proteins in dinosaur fossils in favor of exploring more interesting research questions. Not only are dinosaur fossils far older than the fossils in the two studies, he noted, but they mostly date back to a hothouse period in the global climate when there were no ice caps. What's more, on average, dinosaur fossils are buried far deeper and thus have experienced far greater geothermal heat. It's also not clear whether dinosaur teeth had thick enough enamel to preserve proteins, he added. Cappellini and Paterson said it might be possible to retrieve useful protein information from dinosaur fossils within 10 years, although there were other interesting questions to investigate first, such as how mammals came to dominate the planet after the dinosaurs' demise. 'I really think some sites might preserve dinosaur proteins in deep time. Maybe we can give those a shot,' Paterson said.
