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Published online 26 February 2007 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news070226-4
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Ancient DNA solves milk mystery
Analysis of fossilized bones suggests milk-drinking mutations emerged after dairy herding.
When did ancient populations learn that drinking milk 'does a body good'? A team of scientists in Germany has tried to answer this question by studying ancient DNA extracted from skeletons thousands of years old.
Many adult humans can drink cow's milk — a rare feat among mammals, which usually lose the ability to digest the sugar in milk after they are weaned.
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