Chilean mummies reveal a lost lineage of smallpox

Scientists have found smallpox viruses in the remains of people in Chile from around 500 years ago, revealing how the virus may have evolved into a global killer.

Ancient DNA from Chilean mummies is the first ever molecular evidence that European colonizers brought smallpox to the Americas, decimating Indigenous populations.

Centuries-old DNA that was found in these mummies belongs to an extinct viral lineage of smallpox that was brought across the Atlantic during European colonization of the Americas