Ancient Genome Delivers 'Spirit Cave Mummy' to US Tribe

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that the crash was caused by errors in the from incoming asteroids by subtly changing taking planetary-protection projects forward, sensor systems that made the craft behave as their course using projectiles. Insiders say that he said. if it was closer to the Martian surface than it AIM missed its target sum by perhaps a few AIM’s cancellation means that ESA now has really was. This prompted Schiaparelli to jet- tens of millions of euros. no small-body missions planned for at least the tison its parachute too early, before falling from “A cool project has been killed because of a next 15 years, a particularly bitter disappoint- a height of about 3.7 kilometres. lack of vision — even short term — and cour- ment following the success of ESA’s Rosetta “We will have learned much from age, and this is really sad,” says Patrick Michel, mission, which orbited and landed on a comet. Schiaparelli that will directly contribute to a planetary scientist at the French National AIM would also have been ESA’s first test of the second ExoMars mission,” said David Centre for Scientific Research in Nice, who laser communication in deep space, and of its Parker, ESA’s director of human spaceflight leads the AIM project. interplanetary CubeSats. and robotic exploration at the European Space AIM would have sent a probe, two minia- Overall, ESA was able to obtain €10.3 bil- Research and Technology Centre in Noord- ture satellites known as CubeSats and a lander lion of the roughly €11 billion it had requested wijk, the Netherlands, in a statement. to the asteroid Didymos. There, the scientists from its 22 member states, plus Slovenia and If successful, the rover will be the first that planned to watch a NASA craft, known as the Canada, for a variety of programmes. This either Europe or Russia has operated on Mars’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), included funding for the International Space surface. Its major selling point is a drill that smash into a 165-metre-wide rock that orbits Station up to 2024 and for a future space- can extend to 2 metres, which would allow the the asteroid, called Didymoon. weather mission in cooperation with NASA robot to dig to a depth where signs of ancient ESA had hoped to study how the impact and the Japanese space agency, JAXA. life could have been preserved, protected from would alter the moon’s orbit. In 2022, Didymos Ministers also agreed to further finance the red planet’s harsh radiation. will be close enough to Earth to monitor the plans for ESA to work with Roscosmos on the deflection from the ground, meaning that Moon lander Luna 27, a collaboration first ASTEROID FAIL DART — which is awaiting its own approval pitched in 2014. But the meeting also brought bad news for decision in March 2017 — can go ahead with- ESA will spend around €30 million on another project. Member states did not com- out AIM. But the ESA craft would have pro- preparatory work for the mission, which is mit the €250 million needed to fund a plan for vided more-detailed knowledge, says Michel. scheduled for 2020. European scientists and ESA to participate in a mission to deflect the Wörner left the door open for exploring industry hope to contribute landing, commu- moon of an asteroid. similar asteroid missions in the future. And nications and drilling and analysis instruments The Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM) was ministers supported making a smaller amount to the craft, which is designed to study soil and designed to test a strategy for protecting Earth of funding available to investigate ways of the atmosphere at the Moon’s south pole. ■

ANCESTRY Ancient genome delivers ‘Spirit Cave Mummy’ to US tribe Sequencing proves Native American roots of 10,600-year-old skeleton.

BY EWEN CALLAWAY Jennifer Raff, an anthropological geneticist before the remains are put back in the ground,” at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. “It’s says Steven Simms, an archaeologist at Utah he sequencing of a 10,600-year-old been a quest for a lot of geneticists to under- State University in Logan, who has studied the genome has settled a lengthy legal stand what the earliest peoples here looked Spirit Cave Mummy. “We’ve got a lot of material dispute over who should own the old- like,” she says. in this country that’s been repatriated and never Test mummy in North America — and given The case follows the US government’s deci- will be available to science.” scientists a rare insight into early inhabitants sion this year that another controversial skele- of the Americas. ton, an 8,500-year-old SPIRIT CAVE LAWSUIT The controversy centred on the ‘Spirit Cave human known as “At least we get The Spirit Cave Mummy is one of a handful Mummy’, a human skeleton unearthed in Kennewick Man, is the knowledge of skeletons from the Americas that are more 1940 in northwest Nevada. The Fallon Paiute- Native American and before the than 10,000 years old (see ‘Sequencing North Shoshone Tribe has long argued that it should qualifies for repatria- remains are American skeletons’). Archaeologists Georgia be given the remains for reburial, whereas the tion on the basis of put back in the and Sydney Wheeler discovered it in Nevada’s US government opposed repatriation. Now, genome sequencing. ground.” Spirit Cave in 1940. The skeleton, an adult male genetic analysis has proved that the skeleton is Some researchers aged around 40 at the time of his death, was more closely related to contemporary Native lament such decisions because the buried skel- shrouded in a rabbit-skin blanket and reed mats Americans than to other global populations. etons are then unavailable for scientific study. and was wearing moccasins; he was found with The mummy was handed over to the tribe on But others point out that science could benefit the cremated or partial remains of three other 22 November. if Native American tribes use ancient DNA to individuals. The Wheelers concluded that the The genome of the Spirit Cave Mummy is secure the return of more remains, because this remains were 1,500–2,000 years old. But when significant because it could help to reveal how may deliver long-sought data on the peopling radiocarbon dating in the 1990s determined ancient humans settled the Americas, says of the region. “At least we get the knowledge that they were much older, the finds drew

IN FOCUS NEWS attention from both scientists and the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe. The tribe considers On Your Knees Cave 10,300 years old Spirit Cave to be part of its ancestral homeland Reburied: 2008 and wanted the remains and artefacts. CANADA The US Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) mandates Genome Kennewick that remains be returned to affiliated tribes sequenced 8,600 years old Wilsall (‘Anzick Child’) Pelican Rapids if they are deemed ‘Native American’ by bio- Repatriation request 12,600 years old 7,900 years old in progress: 2016 Repatriated: 1999 logical or cultural connections. In 2000, the US Reburied: 2014 government’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which oversees the land where the Buhl Browns Valley 10,700 years old 8,900 years old mummy was found, decided against repatria- Reburied: 1991 Repatriated: 1999 tion. The tribe sued, and in 2006 a US District Court judge ordered the agency to reconsider Wizard’s Beach Spirit Cave Gordon Creek 10,200 years old 10,400 years old ~10,000 years old the case, calling the BLM’s decision “arbitrary Repatriated: 2016 and capricious”. The mummy’s remains were stored out of Arlington Springs UNITED STATES view in a Nevada museum, and placed off-limits 13,000 years old SEQUENCING NORTH

ADAPTED FROM FRIENDS OF AMERICA’S PAST; HTTP://GO.NATURE.COM/2HBW3P6 PAST; FROM FRIENDS OF AMERICA’S ADAPTED to most research, except for efforts to determine La Jolla its ancestry. In a 2014 monograph based on ear- AMERICAN SKELETONS 10,500 years old Wilson-Leonard site Genome sequencing is increasingly being Repatriated: 2016 11,000 years old lier examination of the remains, US anthropolo- used to support the repatriation of ancient Horn Shelter gists Douglas Owsley and Richard Jantz noted human remains to Native American groups. 11,000 years old that the mummy’s skull was shaped differently from those of contemporary Native Americans from the region (Kennewick Man, Texas A&M the ancient DNA — but NAGPRA allows the received no formal objections, says Hockett. Univ. Press). That contributed to the BLM’s return of human remains to tribes that have But Jantz, the anthropologist who co-led the decision to seek DNA analysis, says Bryan a geographical connection. Len George, chair Spirit Cave skull study and is based at the Uni- Hockett, an archaeologist at the bureau’s Nevada of the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, did not versity of Tennessee in Knoxville, laments the office in Reno. The tribe was originally opposed respond to requests for comment. decision. “It’s just a sad day for science. We will to genetic analysis to prove the mummy’s ances- The genome of a 12,600-year-old skeleton lose a lot of information about the history of try, says Hockett, but eventually agreed. from Montana, called the Anzick Child, is the human occupation in the Americas as a con- In October 2015, Eske Willerslev, an evolu- only other published ancient genome from the sequence,” he says. Further molecular study of tionary geneticist who specializes in ancient Americas that is older than 10,000 years. The the remains could identify details about the DNA analysis at the Natural History Museum Spirit Cave remains and the Anzick Child both Spirit Cave individuals — from the foods they of Denmark in Copenhagen, travelled to seem genetically closer to South American consumed to the diseases that afflicted them. Nevada to collect bone and tooth samples groups than to some North American groups, “I think Willerslev is the last guy who is going from the mummy and other remains for DNA and the migrations behind this pattern are not to look at these things,” Jantz adds. sequencing, after meeting with tribe members yet understood, says Raff. One possibility is Dennis O’Rourke, a biological anthropolo- several months earlier. that both individuals lived before their local gist at the University of Kansas, says he would populations began spreading across regions like to see more researchers follow Willerslev’s AMERICA’S EARLIEST PEOPLES of the Americas, says population geneticist example and work with Native American Willerslev’s team concluded that the Spirit Cave Pontus Skoglund at Harvard Medical School groups to decide whether to sequence ancient remains are more closely related to indigenous in Boston, Massachusetts. human remains, rebury them, or both. And groups in North and South America than to any Sequencing ancient DNA, which has become Kimberley TallBear, an anthropologist who other contemporary population. The BLM gave easier and cheaper in recent years, could help studies the views of indigenous groups on Nature a preliminary scientific report from the to determine the origins of many other ancient genetics at the University of Alberta in Edmon- team, and a 31-page memo outlining its rea- bones. Remains as old as the Spirit Cave ton, Canada, says researchers with O’Rourke’s soning for repatriating the remains. Willerslev Mummy are rare, but there are many younger attitude to studying ancient remains are becom- declined to comment because his team’s data remains that are not clearly affiliated to any ing more common. She thinks it is wrong for have not yet been published in a journal. tribe, and which might now be deemed Native scientists opposed to repatriation to conclude Hockett says the genome findings offered American through ancient DNA sequencing that tribes are not open to research. “Tribes do the only unequivocal evidence that the remains and thus repatriated, scientists say. not like having a scientific world view politi- are Native American. No evidence links the The BLM announced its intentions to repat- cally shoved down their throat,” she says, “but remains to any specific group — not even riate the Spirit Cave remains in October and there is interest in the science.” ■