Researchers dig up secrets of gut microbiomes from thousands of years ago
What do you get when an archeologist and a gut microbiome researcher collaborate? Ancient poop.
An international research team was able to analyze DNA from 50,000-year-old fecal sediments sampled at the archaeological site of El Salt, near Alicante, Spain, a location where Neanderthals lived before they disappeared from the scene. The fecal material—the oldest available to date—was excavated by an archeologist from the University of La Laguna, Campus de Guajara, Spain, and then sent to the University of Bologna for the analysis.
The study, published in the journal