>The conclusion followed comparisons of DNA samples from the tomb with others taken from one of Columbus’s brothers, Diego, and his son Fernando.
>The knottier question of the explorer’s precise origins will be revealed in Columbus DNA: His True Origin, a special TV programme shown on Saturday 12 October, the date when Spain celebrates its national day and commemorates Columbus’s arrival in the New World.
So if we've had DNA samples of his brother what was stopping us from finding out his "precise origins" earlier?
Some brothers can have different mothers or fathers.
As the origins of Colon were unknown his real family relationships were also unknown. He toke a lot of measures to hide their identity including lying about it. The scientists did DNA tests to Italians with surname Colomb and discovered an unexpected amount of variability (Those people weren't related).
It seems that Colomb (Pigeon?) was a surname applied on Italy for children without parents, so was shared by different people without a real genetic relationship. John "Snow" style. This means also that it was also the perfect surname that somebody wanting to hide their past would chose. This way he could just pretend that didn't knew about his family when interrogated by Kings and powerful people. Refusing to answer otherwise would be extremely dangerous.
I'm confused. They have just now determined that they do indeed have Columbus's DNA so they can finally answer the question of where he was from. But all along they have had the DNA of his brother and of his son. Wouldn't their DNA have answered that question just as well?
Because this article is nationalist lies released on a dramatic TV show for Spain's "national day", not real science. Sorry! For some reason, people are still fighting to claim more credit for the guy who was condemned at the time for immoral behavior. Nationalists gonna nationalist, I guess.
The bones that are supposedly from his brother are in similar condition, and also this guy "now claims that the alleged remains of Christopher and Diego do not correspond to those of two brothers, but to two second cousins." See my comment history or https://elpais.com/ciencia/2024-10-12/el-show-del-adn-de-cri... for more info.
I have a comment on the spanish-language version of this article so check my history for the juicy deets, but long story short: I'd bet my shorts that this is nationalist BS based on extremely shaky--not to mention unpublished!--science. See https://elpais.com/ciencia/2024-10-12/el-show-del-adn-de-cri...
Around 20 generations passed since Columbus set foot in Americas. Given we have his DNA, I wonder if it's still possible to pinpoint living descendants if any exists.
Genetic contributions from any individual ancestor outside the direct maternal line quickly becomes almost indistinguishable once you get more than a few generations out. Centuries out like Columbus is, it's entirely possible for him to have contributed 0 base pairs to any of his descendants.
Some of Columbus' descendants still hold noble titles though, like the Duke of Veragua:
I don't think it is possible - the autosomes recombine quite quickly, after 20 generations I think all the IBDs would be wiped away. But I might be wrong.
"Today, traveling to the same Caribbean islands can be tricky, as anyone caught with contraband can face serious repercussions."
That is a very odd take on the Caribbean, and it's the third paragraph in the article. I've seen text spinners, but this feels AI-driven. Surely a human couldn't be this inane.
LLMs have gotten good enough that it’s practically impossible to tell apart the difference in output between a real human mid-wit writer and LLM output, especially if it has gone through some editing.
So it’s probably best to err on the side of caution.
It just felt gratuitously weird. It was completely out of place given the purpose of the article. Either it served to support some beef the author has with that region, or just to find any excuse to link to another article on the site.
Readit News
>The knottier question of the explorer’s precise origins will be revealed in Columbus DNA: His True Origin, a special TV programme shown on Saturday 12 October, the date when Spain celebrates its national day and commemorates Columbus’s arrival in the New World.
So if we've had DNA samples of his brother what was stopping us from finding out his "precise origins" earlier?
As the origins of Colon were unknown his real family relationships were also unknown. He toke a lot of measures to hide their identity including lying about it. The scientists did DNA tests to Italians with surname Colomb and discovered an unexpected amount of variability (Those people weren't related).
It seems that Colomb (Pigeon?) was a surname applied on Italy for children without parents, so was shared by different people without a real genetic relationship. John "Snow" style. This means also that it was also the perfect surname that somebody wanting to hide their past would chose. This way he could just pretend that didn't knew about his family when interrogated by Kings and powerful people. Refusing to answer otherwise would be extremely dangerous.
Specifically, they probably don't have Columbus' DNA, and if they do, it's from a very small collection of highly degraded hand bones: https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/7HHNA2XRENAIDKTSS4RUG...
The bones that are supposedly from his brother are in similar condition, and also this guy "now claims that the alleged remains of Christopher and Diego do not correspond to those of two brothers, but to two second cousins." See my comment history or https://elpais.com/ciencia/2024-10-12/el-show-del-adn-de-cri... for more info.
Some of Columbus' descendants still hold noble titles though, like the Duke of Veragua:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crist%C3%B3bal_Col%C3%B3n_de...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/11/dna-study-chri....
the-express.com page has 2 scroll-fulls of 3rd party garbage blocked by uBlock.
That is a very odd take on the Caribbean, and it's the third paragraph in the article. I've seen text spinners, but this feels AI-driven. Surely a human couldn't be this inane.
So it’s probably best to err on the side of caution.