Scientists from the University of Denmark say they've reconstructed the first detailed genome of an ancient human by analyzing a tuft of hair.
The hair was found in Greenland in the 1980s and its owners nicknamed "Inuk," meaning "man" in Greenlandic.
"Inuk's receding hairline, brown eyes, dark skin and shovel-shaped front teeth are all dictated by his 4,000-year-old genetic coding," said Nuka Godfredtsen, who used the genome results as a blueprint to put together a picture of how Inuk might have looked.
The genome results indicate Inuk's ancestors crossed into Greenland from northeastern Siberia between 4,400 and 6,400 years ago, The Copenhagen Post reported Friday.
Genome sequencing methods developed at the Center for Excellence in GioGenetics in Denmark could aid scientists who are trying to learn more about woolly mammoths and other animals, said researcher Morten Rasmussen.
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