Ancient mummy DNA reveals chilling clue to deadly disease that swept the Americas

DNA recovered from centuries-old mummies in Chile has provided the strongest evidence yet that smallpox arrived in the Americas after European colonization.

The recent research, published in the journal Science, centers on Chilean mummies whose ancient DNA yielded evidence of smallpox infections dating to the early colonial period.

Geneticist Shigeki Nakagome of Trinity College Dublin and his colleagues analyzed 13 bone samples previously collected from an archaeological site at Camarones in northern Chile.