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Una mujer enterrada con honores hace 19.000 años con misteriosas bacterias

ALBERTO QUERO

En 2010, un grupo de arqueólogos encontró en la cueva de El Mirón (Cantabria) los restos de una mujer enterrada hace 19.000 años. Esta sepultura llamó la atención de los expertos por su antigüedad, pero también porque los huesos estaban cubiertos de pintura roja y con cúmulos de polen que indicaban que la tumba había sido decorada con flores. Se la bautizó entonces como la Dama Roja. Estos restos han servido de muestra para un nuevo estudio que pretendía analizar la evolución de las bacterias bucales desde los primeros homínidos hasta el ser humano moderno. El trabajo ha descubierto que hay una diferencia importante entre el conjunto de microorganismos de los europeos del Paleolítico superior (grupo al que pertenece la Dama Roja) y los humanos que llegaron al continente hace 14.000 años. Las bacterias de los primeros son muy similares a las de los neandertales, mientras que las de los segundos se asemejan más a los del hombre moderno.

Al conjunto de bacterias que tenemos en nuestro organismo se las conoce como microbioma. Además de en la boca, están presentes en otros lugares, como la nariz, los pulmones, los intestinos o la piel. Si bien el grueso de estos microbios son comunes a todos los humanos y pasan de una generación a otra durante la infancia, con la lactancia y el contacto directo, hay una parte que varía entre cada individuo. Manuel González Morales, catedrático de la Universidad de Cantabria, investigador del Instituto de Investigaciones Prehistóricas de la misma comunidad y uno de los responsables de la excavación de los restos de la Dama Roja, lo define como “una huella personal”. “Puede haber bacterias concretas que varíen. Nunca somos exactamente idénticos”, explica. Según los cálculos de los expertos, en total estas bacterias suponen un kilo y medio de peso.

Para el estudio se han utilizado muestras de humanos actuales, gorilas, chimpancés y neandertales, además de usar otros datos publicados en informes anteriores. Para analizar al hombre del Paleolítico superior, tomaron muestras de la Dama Roja y al analizarlas, comprobaron que estas cepas de la boca se parecían mucho más a las muestras tomadas en neandertales que a aquellas de los hombres posteriores a hace 14.000 años, antepasados directos de los actuales. En esta fecha se data una ruptura ya que, con el final de la última glaciación, se produce una migración masiva de individuos desde Asia hacia Europa, que acabó reemplazando a la población autóctona. Lo mismo ocurrió con el microbioma de los antiguos europeos. “Las poblaciones que colonizan Europa desde Oriente Medio hace unos 14.000 años tienen microbiomas diferentes a los antiguos europeos, a pesar de que ambos tienen la misma ascendencia neandertal”, explica González.

Los autores del estudio, publicado hoy en la revistaPNAS, apuntan a que el hecho de que los antiguos europeos y los neandertales compartan un microbioma muy similar se debe a que lo heredaron de un mismo antepasado que existió hace 600.000 años. En esta época, los investigadores creen que los humanos incorporan el almidón a su dieta, un compuesto que proporciona más energía que otras comidas y que pudo haber ayudado al mayor desarrollo cerebral de la rama Homo. “Hay una separación con el resto de primates que se produce cuando aparecen las bacterias ligadas al procesamiento del almidón. Es una cosa específicamente humana”, señala González.

Mandíbula de la Dama Roja encontrada en la cueva de El Mirón (Cantabria).
Mandíbula de la Dama Roja encontrada en la cueva de El Mirón (Cantabria).MANUEL MORALES GONZÁLEZ / OTROS

Pero esta similitud del microbioma solo se da en las muestras de europeos del Paleolítico superior y no en las de individuos de África. “Los microbiomas de los especímenes del norte de África de esa época también eran diferentes. Eran microbiomas de hombres modernos conviviendo con microbiomas de neandertales”, cuenta González. Esto no significa que la población africana esté más evolucionada que las poblaciones europeas o asiáticas, simplemente tienen “historias evolutivas diferentes”, según apunta el investigador. “Las poblaciones actuales africanas prácticamente no tienen nada de ascendencia neandertal. El resto de las poblaciones de Eurasia y América, que se coloniza desde Asia, sí que tenemos una pequeña proporción de linaje neandertal. En torno a un 1-2%”, explica.

Para Antonio Rosas, profesor de Investigación del CSIC, este estudio pertenece a una corriente de investigación cada vez más importante, centrada en la influencia de los microbiomas en la vida y la biología. A nivel humano, Rosas considera que “conocer la evolución de este conjunto de microorganismos nos ayuda a entender mucho mejor las cosas desde un punto de vista evolutivo”. Pero estos conocimientos también se pueden aplicar a otros animales y especies. “Es importante tener un criterio independiente para conocer la evolución de los grupos animales. Se trata de estudiar la composición de estos biomas y ver cómo va cambiando”, asegura. González también es optimista en cuanto a las posibilidades del estudio, aunque considera que “será necesario ampliar la muestra para comprobar si este descubrimiento se da en otras poblaciones del Paleolítico”.

Fuente: https://elpais.com/

Wellington Pérez

Egresado como periodista de la Escuela de comunicación de la Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD). Cuatriboliao, Minoso y más Cabraleño que una Cachua o una Viejaca.

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