Study: Seals Infected Early Americans With Tuberculosis

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday August 20, 2014 @11:56AM from the seal-of-consumption dept.

mdsolar writes that a study suggests that tuberculosis first appeared in the New World less than 6,000 years ago and it was brought here by seals. After a remarkable analysis of bacterial DNA from 1,000-year-old mummies, scientists have proposed a new hypothesis for how tuberculosis arose and spread around the world. The disease originated less than 6,000 years ago in Africa, they say, and took a surprising route to reach the New World: it was carried across the Atlantic by seals. The new study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, has already provoked strong reactions from other scientists. "This is a landmark paper that challenges our previous ideas about the origins of tuberculosis," said Terry Brown, a professor of biomolecular archaeology at the University of Manchester. "At the moment, I'm still in the astonished stage over this."

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Africa man... by thedarb · 2014-08-20 11:59 · Score: 3, Funny

That place is trying to kill us off, for sure.

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But but... by Narcocide · 2014-08-20 11:59 · Score: 5, Funny

She told me she was a mermaid!!
1. Re:But but... by antifoidulus · 2014-08-20 12:59 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Well, in the future here is a handy rule of thumb that has helped me throughout my life: if someone offers to have sex with you in exchange for a bucket of fish, run.
  
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Don't worry by Anonymous Coward · 2014-08-20 12:00 · Score: 0, Funny

They'll figure out a way to still blame white people.
clubbing by Anonymous Coward · 2014-08-20 13:03 · Score: 2, Funny

so all that clubbing was retroactively justified.
Re:No problem by Chris+Mattern · 2014-08-20 13:35 · Score: 5, Funny

"Looks like you've blown a seal." "Just fix it and leave my personal life out of this."