Reacción a "The remains of Ötzi, the ‘Iceman’, harbor modern and ancient microorganisms"

The study clearly shows that Ötzi is not a system frozen in time, as we tend to think when we talk about mummies. Although the mummy’s conditions of preservation have been quite extreme, with temperatures below 0 °C, this has not been enough to halt all biological activity. The study clearly demonstrates that microorganisms specialised in cold environments, known as psychrophiles, can thrive under such conditions.

The mummy acts as a biological substrate on which, as might be expected, microbial communities of different origins and ages intertwine depending on the conditions to which it is exposed. The authors have succeeded in sequencing remnants of ancient gut microbiota, microorganisms associated with the glacier, and others that appear to originate from the museum where the mummy is preserved. The identification of ancient gut bacteria provides a valuable reference for studying what the human microbiome was like some 5,300 years ago and for comparing it with current, less Westernised human communities. However, from an applied perspective, this has important implications for the conservation of archaeological remains containing biological tissues. Ötzi is an exceptional mummy and also a micro-ecosystem in an unstable equilibrium, and his conservation requires consideration not only of physical factors such as temperature and humidity, but also of microbiological factors.