Two Canadian researchers used DNA extracted from a molar to identify Capt James Fitzjames of the doomed 1845 expedition
lay scattered on the rocky shores of an Arctic island. Weatherbeaten and bleached, nearly a quarter of the anonymous remains bore the marks of cannibalism, reflecting a grim coda to the famed expedition.as Capt James Fitzjames from London, a discovery stemming from years of study by researchers at two Canadian universities, who isolated his DNA from a single molar and traced it to living relatives.
“What was the plan following the desertion of the ships? Did they travel as a single group? How do we understand the bodies of 20 sailors in this one spot? There are so many questions we still have and we’re trying to,” said Douglas Stenton, adjunct professor of anthropology at the University of Waterloo and lead author on the research. “It’s challenging and it’s fascinating; no other British polar exploration suffered such a catastrophic loss as the Franklin Expedition.
“You have to be related in a very specific way for the purposes of our study. We have about, I think, 25 descendants so far that we’ve obtained genetic profiles from,” he said. Recent excavations suggest that a combination of scurvy, hypothermia and possibly cannibalism killed the crew after they abandoned the two stranded vessels.
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