X-Rays reveal secrets about ancient Peruvian mummy's history

Doctors at Driscoll Children's Hospital were hoping to take the wraps off some of the mysteries hidden inside an Peruvian mummy this morning. This archaelogical investigation was not done with trowels and shovels: this case, the digging was done with X-rays.

This 2,000-year-old mummy was taken to Driscoll Children's Hospital today for X-rays that can reveal information 
about its life in ancient times [Credit: Corpus Christi Museum of Natural History and Science]

"She was not my average patient!" said Suzi Beckwith, Diagnostic X-ray Coordinator at Driscoll Children's Hospital

For the past 60 years, the mummy has been kept at the Corpus Christi Museum of Natural History and Science. However now that museum wants to send the mummy back to Peru. They are trying to learn as much as they can about her, and X-rays can reveal a lot.

The museum already knows some of the mummy's past from records. They believe it is from the Inca Empire of Peru. When she was alive, the girl was 6- to 8-years-old girl, but that was back as far as 2,000 years ago.

Today, the museum and the hospital came together to see what secrets she is hiding inside.

"Because of the size of the mummy, I thought it was a baby," Beckwith said. "But looking at the X-rays, you see her legs are actually tucked in. So she's not a baby. she's a little girl.

X-rays can confirm gender, age, and even cause of death.

The X-rays showed the mummy's bones are in good condition, and can confirm other things like gender, age, 
and even cause of death [Credit: Corpus Christi Museum of Natural History and Science]

"We're looking for things that can help us give information to anthropologists in Peru, and then hopefully confirm cultural group that she belongs to, said Jillian Becquet, Collections Manager at the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History.

Little is known about the girl's ancient life, where the mummy is from, or whether she was taken out of Peru legally.

Records do show the mummy was exhibited at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, before arriving at the Corpus Christi Museum of Natural History and Science in 1957. The mummy was one of the museum's first artifacts. However, it was removed from display in the 1980s, and has sat in storage ever since.

"This person needs to be where her family buried her," Becquet said.

Now, the museum is trying to learn more about her past and identity, working with the Peruvian Embassy with the goal of sending the mummy home. 

"Whatever group was around her chose to do this very caring thing, to wrap her purposefully and bury her," Becquet said. "Somebody along the way disrespected that, and so we want that to be restored."

From here, Peruvian anthropologists will look over the data to verify the findings. As for if or when this mummy will be returned, will be up to the Peruvian government to decide.

Author: Jane Caffrey | Source: KrisTV [Septembter 18, 2017]

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Dawn of agriculture linked with poor start to life in ancient Atacama, Chile

Learning to cultivate crops and other agricultural food – rather than relying on hunter-gathering – is often thought of as a key milestone in the history of humanity.

Atacama [Credit: University of Otago]

However, new evidence from the University of Otago and the Universidad de Tarapaca in Chile indicates that the adoption of agriculture was associated with poor maternal and infant health in the ancient Atacama Desert.

This work provides the first direct evidence for maternal-foetal transfer of a nutritional deficiency in an archaeological sample.

Study lead author and PhD candidate Anne Marie Snoddy, of the Department of Anatomy, says agriculture does provide some evolutionary advantages, including increased resources for population growth.

“However, crop foods are quite poor in many nutrients needed by growing babies and their mothers. Women and children are particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of agricultural intensification and resource scarcity.”

The research team’s findings appear in the International Journal of Paleopathology.

“Our new paper sheds light on to the impact of the agricultural transition on these past people, showing rare evidence for newborns and foetuses, including a possible mother-baby pair, with signs of pathology related to food deficiencies.

“This kind of direct evidence of maternal-foetal transfer of a nutritional deficiency is not something we have ever seen in the archaeological record.”

This research aimed to assess if there was any impact on the reduction of dietary diversity with the adoption of agricultural food practices, by investigating disease evidence on the skeletons of individuals from a transitional Early Formative Period site (3,600-3,200 years before present).

All the infants at this site showed potential evidence for nutritional insufficiency in the form of scurvy (vitamin C deficiency).

“Scurvy leaves its signature on bones. Prolonged vitamin C deficiency causes poor bone formation and leaky blood vessels. Small amounts of blood collect at muscle attachment sites and this can cause abnormal bone to form,” Ms Snoddy says.

“By analysing the patterning of this abnormal bone formation throughout the skeleton, we can identify people who suffered from a period of vitamin C deficiency during their life, and this can give us information about the general quality of their diet. Scurvy is associated with low dietary diversity and generally poor nutrition.”

Senior author Dr Sian Halcrow, of the Department of Anatomy, says there has been a focus archaeologically on the exploration of the pre-agricultural Chinchorro people and associated elaborate mummy burials.

However, recent research highlights periods of increasing infant mortality during the transitional period from hunter-gatherer to agricultural practices, and biological anthropologists are beginning to investigate the reasons for this.

“This work is important for the wider interpretation of the environmental context of the Atacama Desert, in northern Chile, in which these populations lived. This desert is one of the harshest environments in the world, with the least amount of rainfall (<2 mm per year) of any hot desert.

“The stresses on these people may have gotten worse with the adoption of agricultural food crops, which are poor sources of many important nutrients,” she says.

Ms Snoddy says the researchers interpreted that the vitamin C deficiency was possibly due to periodic food shortages from El Nino events in the area.

“In this paper, we argue that the extreme arid environment of the Atacama means that it is particularly ecologically unstable, with climate change causing major impact on both marine and land resources.”

Dr Halcrow says “importantly, the group’s latest findings also contribute to an understanding of the sensitive relationship between the ill health of the mother and infant in the past”.

“Ongoing work on bone and tooth chemistry and microfossil analyses of dental plaque may provide further insights into the transition to agriculture at this time.”

Source: University of Otago [September 15, 2017]

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New Peruvian whale fossil discovery sheds light on whale lineages

A new study led by a Monash biologist has provided fresh information on the origin of one of the major baleen whale lineages, which helps to connect living whales with their deep evolutionary past.

Cranium of Tiucetus rosae (MNHN.F. PPI261, holotype) in (a) oblique anterodorsal and (b) lateral 
view (a, anterior; d, dorsal; l, lateral; p, posterior) [Credit: Felix Marx et al. 
Royal Society Open Science (2017)]

The new whale (Tiucetus rosae) bridges the gap between a family known as cetotheriids – today represented by the living pygmy right whale – and a poorly understood group of ancient whales living 10 to  25 million years ago.

“Tiucetus sheds light on what kind of animal cetotheriids, and thus one of the major modern baleen whale lineages, evolved from,” said lead study author Dr Felix Marx from the Monash School of Biological Sciences.

“We know from DNA and morphological studies how the living baleen whale families relate to each other, but the looks and whereabouts of their earliest ancestors remain largely in the dark.

“Our new whale is starting to change that, by filling in the blanks at the base of Cetotheriidae.”

Phylogenetic position of Tiucetus rosae (shown in red) among other living and extinct baleen whales 
[Credit: Felix Marx et al. Royal Society Open Science (2017)]

The Peruvian whale fossil was found, collected and prepared by the study’s French co-author, Dr Christian de Muizon.  Dr Marx is an expert on baleen whale evolution and was invited to describe and analyse the new specimen. His study, published in Royal Open Society Science, is part of an ongoing research program involving scientists from Peru and several countries in Europe.

There are four families of baleen whale in the modern ocean - 10 to 25 million years ago, the ocean looked rather different, and was dominated by a group of archaic whales scientists still know very little about, according to Dr Marx.

“It is generally thought that these ancient whales belong to one or more of the living families, but they are so different from their modern cousins that no one is quite sure where they fit,” he said.

“Our new fossil superficially looks like an archaic species, but also shares some very clear traits with Cetotheriidae. ­

The research team studied the shape of its bones in detail, and compared it to a broad variety of living and extinct species. Every comparison they made resulted in clear differences with known whales, which meant that the fossil represented a new species.

Source: Monash University [September 14, 2017]

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