It was around 66 million years ago that dinosaurs faced extinction from the blue planet following an asteroid strike. And now, Oxford University Professor Aris Katzourakis has claimed that an ancient virus that was present during the Jurassic era can be still found in human genomes.
An ancient group of DNA viruses in humans
According to Katzourakis, these recently-discovered fossil viruses belong to an ancient group of DNA viruses known as Mavericks.
It should be noted that modern viruses are retroviruses, which actively insert DNA copies of their RNA genes into the genomes of the cells they infect. However, fossil viruses differ from modern viruses, and they do not infect people like retroviruses.
"It's kind of hiding in plain sight in the human genome," said Katzourakis about the new finding.
Mavericks dating back to 105 million years in the human body
According to the research conducted by Katzourakis, these ancient fossil viruses could have reached humans through one of our ancestors at least 105 million years ago.
"We further estimate the age of the viral ancestor around 268 million years. Our results provide evidence for some of the oldest viral integrations in the human genome and insights into the ancient interactions of viruses with the ancestors of modern-day mammals. There aren't that many non-retroviral viruses in our genome," Katzourakis told New Scientist.
