Reconstructing the sixth century plague from a victim

Before the infamous Black Death, the first great plague epidemic was the Justinian plague, which, over the course of two centuries, wiped out up to an estimated 50 million (15 percent) of the world's population throughout ...

Black death mortality not as widespread as believed

The black death, which plagued Europe, West Asia and North Africa from 1347 to 1352, is the most infamous pandemic in history. Historians have estimated that up to 50 percent of Europe's population died during the pandemic ...

Bacteria in ancient flea may be ancestor of the Black Death

About 20 million years ago a single flea became entombed in amber with tiny bacteria attached to it, providing what researchers believe may be the oldest evidence on Earth of a dreaded and historic killer - an ancient strain ...

How did the plague reshape Bronze Age Europe?

Europe changed dramatically during the Bronze Age, with huge population shifts generally ascribed to the rise of new metal technologies, trading and climate change. But scientists believe that there may have been another ...

Oldest ever traces of the plague found in Falköping

In a 5,000 year old grave outside Falköping, scientists have found the oldest traces of the plague bacterium's DNA in the world. An international research team including archaeologists from the University of Gothenburg made ...

How small genetic change in Yersinia pestis changed human history

While studying Yersinia pestis, the bacteria responsible for epidemics of plague such as the Black Death, Wyndham Lathem, Ph.D., assistant professor in microbiology-immunology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of ...

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