The 10,600-Year-Old Man Found In Nevada — And The DNA Discovery That Changed The Story Of The First Americans
After death, DNA begins to degrade.
The enzymes that normally repair DNA damage are no longer functioning.
Bacteria colonize the remains and begin breaking down organic material, including DNA.
Water and oxygen drive chemical reactions that fragment and chemically alter the DNA molecule.
The result, in most burial environments, is that DNA degrades rapidly — within decades or centuries, it is typically destroyed or altered beyond recovery.
But not always.
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