Forensic Case Files: 13,000 Year Old Skeleton Shines Light on the Geographic Origins of North American Peoples

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An article last week in the journal Science revealed the discovery of a 12,000 year old skeleton in Mexico, one of the oldest human remains discovered in North America. The article made a big splash on campus at McMaster University as one of the researchers, Ed Reinhardt, is a Geography and Earth Sciences professor here.

Twelve thousand years ago, much of North America was covered by glaciers. But Mexico was free of the glaciers’ icy hold, making it a suitable habitat for some of North America’s indigenous people. One particular group settled on the coast of what is now known as the Yucatan peninsula.

What happened that one day so many millennia is clear; CSI couldn’t have put it together better. A teenaged girl of 15 or 16 years of age was exploring a subterranean cave, perhaps with only the light of a torch, probably searching for fresh water. When the ground suddenly fell away beneath her feet, she fell more than 160 feet to her death. It was an all-too-common mistake—her remains were found mixed with those of a saber tooth tiger, a giant ground sloth, a bobcat, a coyote, and a gomphothere (an elephant-like creature, extinct for approximately 9,000 years).

As the glaciers receded, and the sea levels rose, the cave system filled with salt water, entombing those lost in the dark below. But science recently discovered the cave systems and experienced divers, Dr. Reinhardt among them, retrieved the girl’s remains. The girl, christened Naia by the team, was determined to have lived between 12,600 and 12,900 years ago not only by her own remains, but also by the rocks and sediment recovered around her.

The most fascinating data to come from the study of this young woman concerns her heritage. Researchers extracted ancient tooth pulp from one of her molars (in a similar method as used to identify the plague from Black Death victims) to profile her mitochondrial DNA. Researchers discovered that Naia was not only related to modern North American aboriginal peoples, but also to the Siberian-based population from which is it believed that all indigenous North Americans arose.

The shape of Naia’s skull is distinctly different from modern North American aboriginals, indicating that while the their common ancestors crossed the narrow land bridge to North America, traveling between North America’s dual glaciers to settled in Central America, genetically, the two peoples evolved different phenotypic characteristics afterward.

Scientists are now attempting to sequence Naia’s entire genome to discover what other genetic connections this long lost girl might reveal to modern man.

Photo credit: Roberto Chavez Arce and Science

Forensic Case Files: 9/11 Victims' Final Resting Place

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Last year, we did a series of blog posts on 9/11—mass fatality accidents, identifying human remains, the challenges in naming the victims, and the ongoing evidence still being uncovered around the site. A little over a week ago, on May 10th, one of the final chapters of the 9/11 story was written as the final unidentified victims were moved back to Ground Zero to become part of the September 11th Memorial Museum, a permanent part of the Ground Zero site.

Thirteen years after the tragedy, 1,115 or 41% of the 2,753 lost souls have yet to be positively identified by DNA, despite the fact the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York held 7,930 fragmentary samples of unmatched human remains. Due to the condition of these samples—many were badly degraded by the heat of the fire or ground to less than a 1/16” in size during the building collapses—DNA testing was either impossible or inconclusive, despite the samples given by family members for comparison.

Enclosed in three caskets, these final unidentified remains were escorted in the early morning hours through the streets of New York City by an honour guard made up from members of the New York Fire Department, the New York Police Department, and the New York Port Authority. Upon arriving at Ground Zero, they were transferred to a repository at bedrock level in the museum, 70 feet below the street. Walled off from the exhibition space, only staff of the medical examiner’s office and family members will be allowed access to the facility.

The decision to make this the victims’ final resting place raises mixed emotions in family members of those lost. Many feel the final remains of their loved ones have become part of a ‘dog-and-pony show’ tourist attraction, and have also raised concerns about the possibilities of flooding in the subterranean location. But many others feel that Ground Zero is an appropriate resting place for the victims that lost their lives there, that the museum is a place of reflection, respect and education, and the victims are a crucial part of the 9/11 experience.

Forensic scientists remain hopeful that these remains may yet be identified. New scientific techniques are constantly being developed, and many samples that would have been impossible to identify in 2001 are now excellent candidates for matching. The hope is, given time and scientific advances, many more of the remaining fragments will be identified and the victims finally returned to their families.

As an aside, for those who are interested, The New York Times has an excellent interactive tour of the museum here: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/05/14/arts/design/September-11-Memorial-Museum.html. It's well worth the time to read.

Photo credit: Peter Foley/European Pressphoto Agency

The Launch of A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH

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Last Friday, May 9th, I held the launch party for A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH at A Different Drummer Books in Burlington, a bookshop near Toronto that has been a local landmark for over forty years.

As a thank you to our friends, family and readers who came out to the event, I’d prepared a book lovers’ gift basket to raffle off with everything you might want for an evening with your favourite new book—a bottle of wine, chocolate, gourmet cookies, tea, hot chocolate, scented candles, and chocolate covered coffee beans for those nights you absolutely have to stay up to finish! Also, Ian Elliot, the very kind owner of A Different Drummer Books and an all-around great sport, donated a gift certificate to the book store so the lucky winner could pick up more literary goodies.

It was a nice kick to walk into the bookstore to see a stack of our titles:

With the help of family and some very generous friends, there were some lovely refreshments:

I read an except from the beginning of the novel as the team discovers the body that starts this case. Because the main floor of the bookstore was crowded, I got to read from the landing. I felt like Juliet…

After that, we did the signing and mingling. For a while, the bookstore was at full capacity, but later in the evening, the crowd thinned out a bit so you could move around.

(That’s my youngest with her phone glued to her hand…)

Can I just say how surreal it is to have your kindergarten teacher come out to your book launch? She was thrilled to reconnect with one of her students and it was lovely to see her (in black, in the foreground of this photo):

Thanks to Ian at A Different Drummer Books for being such a great host for us that evening, and thanks to everyone who took the time out of their busy evenings to come out and share in the launch. We all had a great time!

How Readers Can Support Their Favourite Authors

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Before we start into this week’s blog post, for friends and readers in the Southern Ontario area, you are cordially invited to the launch party for A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH. Please join me at A Different Drummer Books (513 Locust Street in Burlington) on Friday May 9th at 7pm. Hope to see you there!

And to celebrate the launch of A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH, the preceding novella, NO ONE SEES ME ‘TIL I FALL, will be available for FREE on Amazon starting tomorrow. So if you missed it and want to catch up, don’t wait—this offer ends on May 11th!

It’s a question we’ve heard a lot lately from friends and readers—how can I help with your new book? As authors, we’re very grateful for help when we’re promoting a new release. Many of us are already neck deep in our next manuscript (or the next one after that, if you’re us) and time is a precious commodity. Many hands make for light work, so we’re very appreciative for any and all assistance. Especially right now when A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH is newly available everywhere!

How can readers support the authors they love (and not only at release time)?

  • Buy their books: On behalf of authors everywhere, thank you for buying our books! If you pre-order an author’s book, that confirms with bookstores that they should stock it. And once you’ve found an author you like, buying from their back catalogue is another great way to support them.
  • Donate a book to your local library: Maybe it’s an author you love, but their latest release isn’t a genre you enjoy. Donate your copy of their book to a library where other readers will enjoy it.
  • Request your local library to purchase the book to add to their catalogue: If you’ve already blown your book budget for the month, request new books from your library. Especially for authors who are just starting out, this is a great way to be discovered by new readers. Authors love libraries and this is a great, free way to lend your support. The more requests a library gets, the more copies they might buy.
  • Give their books as gifts: This not only supports authors, but also booksellers as well.
  • Review the book: Word of mouth is one of the strongest ways to promote a book these days, so write a review for Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Chapters/Indigo.
  • Join the author’s street team: I had a kick ass street team for A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH. This team of fantastic readers got access to the book four or five months early and have been instrumental in talking up our books early and through the opening weeks.
  • Use social media: If you’re looking forward to a book, or you’ve just read a book you love, tweet or Facebook or blog about that book. Social media sites are a great way to promote both the author and their books.
  • Let the author know you enjoyed the book: Either with a tweet, a FB message or an email, a quick word from a happy reader can give an author the kick they need to pound out another 1,000 words on their latest manuscript, or even just put a spring in their step for the day.

 On behalf of Ann and myself (and, really, authors everywhere), a huge thank you to all our readers for all they do for us. We really, really couldn’t do it without you!

Photo Credit: Kate Ter Haar