Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • COMMENT

Use ancient remains more wisely

Researchers rushing to apply powerful sequencing techniques to ancient-human remains must think harder about safeguarding, urge Keolu Fox and John Hawks.
  1. Keolu Fox

    1. Keolu Fox is an assistant professor of biological anthropology at the University of California, San Diego.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  2. John Hawks

    1. John Hawks is the Vilas-Borghesi Distinguished Achievement Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

An archaeologist works at the osteological collection of the Anthropology National Museum in Mexico City

An archaeologist works on the osteological collection at the Anthropology National Museum in Mexico City. Credit: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty

The study of ancient-human populations and our now-extinct close relatives has thrived over the past decade, as genetic material is examined with cheaper and more sophisticated sequencing technologies. Only nine years ago, the partial sequencing of a Neanderthal genome was a major scientific achievement1. Today, researchers are pursuing what many have termed a factory-like approach to analysing ancient DNA2, with the processing of hundreds of samples.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 572, 581-583 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02516-5

References

  1. Green, R. E. et al. Science 328, 710–722 (2010).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Reich, D. Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past (Oxford Univ. Press, 2018).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Wall, J. D. et al. Genetics 194, 199–209 (2013).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Allentoft, M. E. et al. Nature 522, 167–172 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Prendergast, M. E. et al. Science 365, eeaw6275 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Korlević, P., Talamo, S. & Meyer, M. Sci. Rep. 8, 4127 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. McGrath, K. et al. Sci. Rep. 9, 11027 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Kolodny, A. In Search of First Contact: The Vikings of Vinland, the Peoples of the Dawnland, and the Anglo-American Anxiety of Discovery (Duke Univ. Press, 2012).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Ponce de León, M. S. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 115, 4128–4133 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Collins, M. J. et al. Archaeometry 44, 383–394 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Douka, K. et al. J. Hum. Evol. 107, 86–93 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Claw, K. et al. Hum. Biol. 89, 177–180 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Casey, M. J. & Vigna, P. The Truth Machine: The Blockchain and the Future of Everything (St Martin’s Press, 2018).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links