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 ...

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 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 ...

Coyotes studied as stand-ins for endangered ferrets

By testing easier-to-study coyotes, researchers from the Cornell Wildlife Health Lab at the College of Veterinary Medicine, in collaboration with the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe, have identified a range of lethal diseases ...

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