Caramelli and colleagues made their first two stabs at sequencing Cro -
Magnon DNA in 2003, extracting it from the bones of a 25,000 - year - old boy and 23,000 - year - old woman found in the Paglicci Cave in southern Italy.
After two controversial attempts, the biological anthropologist at the University of Florence, Italy, and colleagues claim to have successfully sequenced mitochondrial
DNA (mtDNA) from the fossils of a Cro -
Magnon, a 28,000 - year - old European ancestor of living humans.