Historians have long suspected European colonists brought the smallpox-causing Orthopoxvirus variola virus to the Americas, ...

Until now, there had been no direct genetic evidence linking colonial-era outbreaks in the Americas to strains circulating in the Old World. The post Ancient DNA confirms European colonizers brought ...

Researchers have recovered the first smallpox virus genomes ever identified in the Americas, providing evidence it was ...

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON, July 30 (Reuters) - When Spanish conquistadors arrived in the New World some five centuries ago, ...

Historians have long speculated that Europeans introduced smallpox to the Americas, which then killed hundreds of millions of ...

When European ships arrived in the Americas towards the end of the 15th century, they brought far more than soldiers and ...

Ancient DNA from two Chilean mummies reveals the first ancient smallpox genomes found in the Americas, uncovering a vanished viral lineage.

Centuries-old DNA that was found in these mummies belongs to an extinct viral lineage of smallpox that was brought across the ...

Scientists have found smallpox viruses in the remains of people in Chile from around 500 years ago, revealing how the virus ...

New research says ancient mummy DNA provides the firmest evidence yet that European colonization brought smallpox to the ...

Learn how centuries-old DNA linked an extinct virus to European colonization and its spread through an Indigenous community ...

According to a study published today in the journal Science, a team at Trinity College Dublin has identified the oldest viral ...