Sunday, February 8, 2009

The Iceman says more than originally thought....

The Iceman cometh? No, according to DNA, he went......the last of his kind.


http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,445385,00.html
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20 comments:

  1. Natalie WisemanFebruary 8, 2009 at 10:46 PM

    I don't understand how they can gather all this information and can tell what his last meal...Do they say how long he had been dead before they found him?

    what is the 5300 years thing?

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  2. AshtonFebruary 9, 2009 at 7:36 AM

    Natalie, they discovered the body in ice in 1991. They think he lived 5,300 years ago.

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  3. cmillerFebruary 9, 2009 at 10:56 AM

    If this "iceman" was some what sticking out of the ice when he was discovered, how come he wasn't found before 1991? Was the ice around him slowly melting? And does this mean that if he was not found when he was he would of started to decay?

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  4. Mrs. BFebruary 9, 2009 at 11:16 AM

    here are a couple of links to help with understanding Otzi. He is really is remarkable when you consider how old he is and the technology that he didn't have....
    http://wilderdom.com/evolution/OtziIcemanAlpsPictures.htm
    http://articles.latimes.com/2008/nov/01/science/sci-otzi1

    http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/1944943.htm
    http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/icemummies/iceman.html

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  5. Mrs. BFebruary 9, 2009 at 11:21 AM

    The ice was melting from the glacier that he was in and that year there was a particularly high melt.He would definitely have started to decay and would have been skeletal when he was found if it had gone on much longer.....remember that glaciers form in areas that are above a snowline. This is a permanent snow area where under normal circumstances the snow does not melt in the summertime.There would have been glaciers in the Alps area at the time of his death and he would have been encased as glaciers advanced(moved forward) or simply as snow continued to fall and layer up on him before it became glacial. Glaciers are pretty cool and have impacted a tremendous amount of the Earth's surface. There are even evidences of glacial coverage in Africa and equatorial areas. How is this possible?

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  6. Mrs. BFebruary 9, 2009 at 11:42 AM

    Article from Feb 2 2009 says he survived the attack! pretty neat paleoforensics.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/4401100/Otzi-the-Iceman-survived-arrow-attack-before-being-killed.html

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  7. ArielFebruary 9, 2009 at 12:35 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  8. ArielFebruary 9, 2009 at 12:37 PM

    I wonder what they would have done if he had had some kin so to say

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  9. Mrs. BFebruary 9, 2009 at 12:37 PM

    Why did you take your post away?

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  10. Mrs. BFebruary 9, 2009 at 12:56 PM

    Some kin? but he did...he had family where he left from they believe....

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  11. Megan_YoungFebruary 9, 2009 at 5:42 PM

    I love all the biology that they twist in their about how you only can recieve mitochondrial dna from your mother and they got theirs from their mother and so forth...but my question is how are they going to figure out wether he had children or not? Are they just going to go down where they found his body and just start testing everybody? Isn't that the only way?

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  12. Sarah SFebruary 9, 2009 at 7:23 PM

    I wonder if thousands or millions of years from now if that is what we are going to become. Another ice age is going to happen and has happened throughout Earth's being. Since we put all of our technology into broadcasts and cd's and whatnot there will be really no physical evidence on Earth of what we were and are. Are all of our future generations going to be captured in ice forever to possibly be dug up by some other future generation? who knows? lol

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  13. Megan_YoungFebruary 9, 2009 at 7:39 PM

    lol...nicely put Sarah

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  14. ChristopherFebruary 9, 2009 at 7:58 PM

    That would so cool to see what our civilization would do to cope with an ice age. People would freak out and blame something stupid like people need to not leave their refrigerators open for long periods of time. We rely so much on technology but would it be able to keep up with the radical shifts of an ice age. Not saying I want us to all die off but I see a major die off of the human civilization. And just to say that Otzi is a really cool specimen and I would love to see him in the flesh.

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  15. OliviaFebruary 9, 2009 at 10:18 PM

    There is definitely another ice age coming is'nt there I thought this was a natural process. Will this not happen no matter what humans do? It is crzy though otzi was not found until 1991 considering half is body was exposed.

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  16. Mrs. BFebruary 9, 2009 at 10:44 PM

    Yes we will experience another ice age. Olivia, he was still entombed in the ice unil there was a major warming period that melted that ice around him in the lat 1990's into 1991. It was just pure luck, as caitlin mentioned, he could have been completely destroyed by decomposition if hikers hadn't found him.

    Sarah - I love those thoughts.
    Chris - we would have mass panic if it occurred quickly ( which it won't), but over time maybe we can learn to cope. The equatorial and subequatorial areas would become quite populated, I would think....

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  17. MeganWFebruary 11, 2009 at 3:50 PM

    i think its amazing that he was found the way he way and that decay hadnt got to him yet. I think its really cool how they can tell what his last meal was when he lived 5300 years ago. but how would people know about us if we did have another ice age...our cds and flashdrives would all be destroyed. how would future generations know anything about the people of the 21st century?

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  18. Matt @ NCSUFebruary 16, 2009 at 8:01 AM

    I agree that the find of Otzi was very amazing and I makes me wonder how many more icemen could be hiding in the glaciers. Nature is always surprising us with random specimens that it decides to spit out from hiding where they have been preserved for thousands of years and each time these finds help us to gain more knowledge about our history and where we came from. Otzi is our most preserved specimen to date but hopefully we will make a new discovery soon to further our knowledge

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  19. Mrs. BFebruary 22, 2009 at 6:10 PM

    Justin says:
    I agree with Megan! The fact that they took DNA samples from his mitochondrion and could from that determine his maternal lineage is pretty amazing. Especially since after thousands of years that is the only way to find out his lineage through DNA sampling! But, I must ask: What is the point of finding his possibly modern-day ancestors? I know that sounds kind of weird, but is there a reason why we are looking for his ancestors? Does finding that information out serve some sort of purpose? I am honestly trying to figure out if there is something that could come of finding out his modern-day ancestors. I am not trying to sound "mean" or "apathetic." I am just curious.

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  20. Mrs. BFebruary 22, 2009 at 6:11 PM

    you mean descendants? I think that there probably is nothing that will ome of it...but it is a curiosity!

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