Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum
comic strip overdue media

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Another mystery cracked with genetics

Cave Painters Were Realists, DNA Study Finds
Scientists have wondered for years how much imagination went into animal drawings etched in caves around Europe, for example with depictions of spotted horses experts didn't think actually existed. Now, after DNA analysis from the fossilized bones of prehistoric horses, they found a genetic mutation that gives rise to a spotted coat.

Spotted Horses in Cave Art Weren’t Just a Figment, DNA Shows
Roughly 25,000 years ago in what is now southwestern France, human beings walked deep into a cave and left their enduring marks. Using materials like sticks, charcoal and iron oxides, they painted images of animals on the cave walls and ceilings — lions and mammoths and spotted horses, walking and grazing and congregating in herds.

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