It’s past time for TIGHAR to get serious about its – poop!
In 2010 Gillespie posted on the TIGHAR forums, “In 2007 we collected what looked like small chunks of brown dirt – but there’s no real dirt at the Seven Site – just coral rubble. We wondered if it might be dried fecal material (not true coprolite because it’s not fossilized). A lab in Canada extracted DNA but it turned out to be my DNA – contamination from touching it without gloves before we realized what it might be. We still didn;t know whether it was really fecal matter so we referred to it as the “Putative Poop” until just recently when the Molecular Anthropology Laboratories at the University of Oklahoma found a type of bacteria present that is generally only found in feces. So the poop is no longer putative. It’s poop. Whether DNA can be extracted remains to be seen.”
No explanation for the three-year time lag.
In 2011 TIGHAR board member Andrew McKenna posted, “We collected “fecal” material during both the 2007 and 2010 expeditions. The 2007 sample, which was not collected with sterile protocols, had what appeared to be Ric’s DNA in it. I think it is the 2010 sample that has recently been tested that has the two different human DNA traces in it. Ric could set me straight on this.
So, the 2007 sample was either Ric’s poop, or contaminated by Ric’s handling it excessively (lots of us handled it not knowing it was going to be tested). Whether or not the 2010 sample has been matched with Ric’s DNA remains to be seen, but the fact that it has what appears to be the human DNA from two persons is very interesting. Either we have Ric’s DNA and someone else, or even two unknown persons. Will be interesting if any of the sequences matched the Earhart family sample we have.”
Again, some talk about various DNA testing protocols but no explanation for why NOTHING has basically been done in the last decade or so.
And now this: https://news.yahoo.com/ancient-dna-reveals-secrets-pompeii-153211890.html If they can extract and sequence DNA from human bones that were covered with volcanic ash hundreds of years ago, seems like this latest technology can tackle “putative poop” that may only be 80-odd years old.
So why isn’t TIGHAR taking the steps to find out if this probably-poop is from Amelia Earhart, Fred Noonan, or one of the SS Norwich City castaways (where my money is)? Do they not want to know the answer, or are they just hoping (again) someone will do it for free?
Sign In
