SAMARA, RUSSIA — Scientists have unearthed findings that changes current thinking on how old the plague is. <br /><br />Research published in the journal Nature Communication describes how scientists found the bacterium Yersinia Pestis on the teeth of 3,800-year-old human remains in Samara, Russia.<br /><br />Researchers looked at the remains of nine people, two of them had the bacteria.<br />Yersinia Pestis gave rise to the bubonic plague. <br /><br />The scientist used sequencing to analyze the samples and found that they pre-date current thinking on the plague's lineage — 3,000 years — by around 1,000 years. <br /><br />Researchers suggest that there was at least two strains of plague lineage floating around at the time. Previously it was suggested to be one.
