King Richard III -- case closed after 529 years

Tuesday, December 2, 2014 - 19:20 in Paleontology & Archaeology

Pictured here are Dr. Turi King and Professor Kevin Schürer from the University of Leicester. International research led by the University of Leicester published in Nature Communications reveals: Analysis of all the available evidence confirms identity of King Richard III to the point of 99.999% (at its most conservative). Analysis of the mitochondrial DNA shows a match between Richard III and modern female-line relatives, Michael Ibsen and Wendy Duldig. The male line of descent is broken at one or more points in the line between Richard III and living male-line relatives descended from Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort. King Richard was almost certainly blue-eyed and probably had blond hair at least during his childhood. The portrait which appears to most closely match the genetically-determined hair and eye colour is the Arched-Frame Portrait in the Society of Antiquaries.

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