Ancient DNA reveals monozygotic newborn twins from the Upper Palaeolithic

• Autor(a) principal: Teschler-Nicola, Maria
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Fernandes, Daniel, Händel, Marc, Einwögerer, Thomas, Simon, Ulrich, Neugebauer-Maresch, Christine, Tangl, Stefan, Heimel, Patrick, Dobsak, Toni, Retzmann, Anika, Prohaska, Thomas, Irrgeher, Johanna, Kennett, Douglas J., Olalde, Iñigo, Reich, David, Pinhasi, Ron
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• DOI: 10.1038/s42003-020-01372-8
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10316/105871; https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-020-01372-8
• topic: Burial; DNA; History, Ancient; Humans; Infant, Newborn; Paleontology; Twins, Monozygotic

The Upper Palaeolithic double burial of newborns and the single burial of a ca. 3-month-old infant uncovered at the Gravettian site of Krems-Wachtberg, Austria, are of paramount importance given the rarity of immature human remains from this time. Genome-wide ancient DNA shows that the male infants of the double grave are the earliest reported case of monozygotic twins, while the single grave´s individual was their 3rd-degree male relative. We assessed the individuals´ age at death by applying histological and µCT inspection of the maxillary second incisors (i2) in conjunction with C- and N-isotope ratios and Barium (Ba) intake as biomarker for breastfeeding. The results show that the twins were full-term newborns, and that while individual 2 died at birth, individual 1 survived for about 50 days. The findings show that Gravettian mortuary behaviour also included re-opening of a grave and manipulation of its layout and content.