Scientists use letter saliva in final attempt to solve riddle of what happened to aviator Amelia Earhart
The mystery of what happened to the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic when she vanished over the Pacific Ocean almost 75 years ago is still yet to be solved.
But scientists have now given Amelia Earhart's family new hope as they attempt to obtain a DNA profile for the pilot from her saliva - taken from envelope seals.
A bone fragment was found on the South Pacific island of Nikumaroro two years ago and it is believed to have come from one of her fingers, but this has not been proven.
DNA match: Scientists are using Amelia Earhart's saliva to create a DNA profile to find if a bone fragment discovered on an island after the 1937 plane crash is hers
All possible traces of her DNA on clothing or hair have now dried up or are considered unreliable, and the bone fragment found could even have belonged to a sea turtle.
A female aviation museum in Cleveland was once believed to have one of her hair samples, but a study two years ago found this specimen was actually only thread.
But because she sent personal letters to her family and these were removed from their envelopes with letter openers, the original seals are still licked shut.
Researchers will compare DNA from the samples against living relatives to determine a match and will take a few months to build a profile, reported Time magazine.
Location: Ms Earhart vanished during her flight across the Pacific Ocean and may have died on Nikumaroro island after a suspected bone fragment was found there
Ms Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, vanished over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 as they tried to fly around the world following the Equator in their twin-engine plane.
??Anyone can go and find a turtle shell and be like: ??I found Amelia Earhart's remains???, said Justin Long of Burnaby, Canada, whose family is partially funding the project.
He is the grandson of 1970s aviator Elgen Long, who wrote the book ??Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved?? with his wife in 1999.
Mr Long told National Geographic: ??We asked: ??How can we take wild claims like this and bring legitimacy back into the Amelia Earhart mystery?? And so we started looking at everything at our disposal.??
Lost: Ms Earhart was an aviation trailblazer, becoming the first woman to fly solo over the Atlantic Ocean in 1932, before she died after crashing five years later
Researchers have looked at 400 letters between Earhart and other people, finding four letters to her family which could be the most useful as she probably sealed them.
Genetic archaeologist Dongya Yang, of Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada, is leading the project.
He will first carefully steam the seals open and take mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited from mothers, and nuclear DNA, containing most of our genetic information.
Evidence: Scientists hope these finger bone fragments found by researchers on the South Pacific island of Nikumaroro will match Ms Earhart's saliva DNA profile
If both types can be obtained then scientists will be able to create a genetic profile that will enable any potential remains to be identified.
??When we have the best technique available, that's when we'll move on to the real letters,?? Dr Yang told National Geographic.
??A strong licking or a light licking may leave more or less cells with the seal,' he added.
Experts say Dr Yang??s methodology is reasonable, but his team will find it more challenging to find nuclear than mitochondrial DNA, as each cell has only one copy.
Originally Posted by Pat MaGroin
Scientists use letter saliva in final attempt to solve riddle of what happened to aviator Amelia Earhart
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