WARSAW, Poland — Researchers said Thursday they have identified the remains of Nicolaus Copernicus by comparing DNA from a skeleton and hair retrieved from one of the 16th-century astronomer’s books. The findings could put an end to centuries of speculation about the exact resting spot of Copernicus, a priest and astronomer whose theories identified the Sun, not the Earth, as the center of the universe.<\/p>\n
Polish archaeologist Jerzy Gassowski told a news conference that forensic facial reconstruction of the skull, missing the lower jaw, his team found in 2005 buried in a Roman Catholic Cathedral in Frombork, Poland, bears striking resemblance to existing portraits of Copernicus.<\/p>\n
The reconstruction shows a broken nose and other features that resemble a self-portrait of Copernicus, and the skull bears a cut mark above the left eye that corresponds with a scar shown in the painting.<\/p>\n
Moreover, the skull belonged to a man aged around 70 — Copernicus’s age when he died in 1543.<\/p>\n
“In our opinion, our work led us to the discovery of Copernicus’s remains but a grain of doubt remained,” Gassowski said.<\/p>\n
So, in the next stage, Swedish genetics expert Marie Allen analyzed DNA from a vertebrae, a tooth and femur bone and matched and compared it to that taken from two hairs retrieved from a book that the 16th-century Polish astronomer owned, which is kept at a library of Sweden’s Uppsala University ,where Allen works.<\/p>\n
“We collected four hairs and two of them are from the same individual as the bones,” Allen said.<\/p>\n