Anthropology+Chapter+KS

__Activity 13-3 The Romanovs and DNA: An Internet Activity__


 * Part A:**

1. Tsar Nicholas II's mother’s name was Empress Maria. 2. Alexandria was born in Hesse. 3. a) The Tsar had four daughters.    b) The Tsar had one son. c) The royal family's two youngest children were Prince Alexei and Princess Anastasia. 4. a) Prince Alexei suffered from the blood disorder hemophilia. b) The symptoms of hemophilia include excessive bleeding, which is what the Prince displayed prior to his diagnosis.    c) Prince Alexei inherited hemophilia from his mother. 5. Other relatives of Alexandra’s that also suffered from hemophilia included her brother Frederick and her nephews Waldemar and Henry. 6. Okay. 7. Tsar Nicholas abdicated his throne on March 2, 1917. 8. a) After Tsar Nicholas II abdicated, Vladimir Lenin took control of the government.    b) Vladimir Lenin was part of the Bolsheviks party. c) There was no one specific cause for the Russian Revolution. However, the articles said that it began due to the extreme poverty throughout the country, and the fact that the people wanted to govern their own land. 9. a) The Ipatiev House was also known as the House of Special Purpose. The house was important because it was the house that the Tsar and his family were held in prior to their execution. b) In July 1918 the Tsar and his family were executed without a trial. 10. Besides for the Tsar and his family, a doctor, a nurse, and two servants were executed as well.     a) The women inserted the family jewels into their corsets to prevent some of the bullets from entering their bodies.


 * Part B:**

1. In 1991, scientists believed that the burial site for the Tsar and his family was in Yekaterinburg, Siberia. 2. a) An American team was called in to help identify the bodies that were found in Siberia.    b) 1. Ridges and Muscular insertions: These determine gender 2. Orbits of the eye and mandible and maxilia of the jaw: This determines race 3. Pelvic girdle measurements: These determine gender 4. Ridges in the pubic bones: These determine the age of the body if it is female and the number of children she had 5. Leg and arm bones: These determine age 3. a) Nine skeletons were discovered   b) A total of eleven people died in the massacre. This means that if the site in Siberia was the actual burial site, two people were missing. 4. a) Wisdom Teeth: These help determine whether a person is older or younger than 21   b) Vertebrae: These help determine whether older or younger than 18 c) Pelvic Region: This helps determine whether a body is a male or a female 5. Okay. 6. Anastasia and Alexei were determined to be missing from the gravesite.    a) These two bodies were missing because the bones from the bodies were analyzed and it was determined that they were all older than 18. Anastasia and Alexei were the only ones who were younger than 18, so they must have been missing. 7. DNA evidence was able to be extracted from the skulls of the bodies. 8. Okay. 9. a) The two DNA structures are similar because they are both made up of the same units of nucleotides.    b) Mitochondrial DNA is a circular loop of double stranded DNA, while the nuclear DNA is a linear form. 10. We inherit our entire mitochondrial DNA from our mothers. 11. a) The Romanov children inherited their mDNA from their mother, Tsarina Alexandra.      b) Tsarina Alexandra inherited her mDNA from her mother, and her mother inherited it from her mother, etc. c) No, he did not have the same mDNA as his children, because he inherited it from his mother, and he did not pass on the mDNA to his children, because they got it from their mother. 12. a) All mitochondrial DNA can be traced back to Queen Victoria. b) The living relative with this mDNA is Prince Philip of England Duke of Edinburgh. 13. Okay. 14. Skeleton #9 was the nurse, because her mDNA was the only one that was different. She was not related to the rest of the Tsar’s family, so the skeleton must have been hers. 15. James, Duke of Fife contributed his DNA because they needed a maternal relative in order to compare the mitochondrial DNA. 16. Based on the Sequence Server, the only skeleton that matched the Duke of Fife’s DNA was skeleton #4. With other information, it can be concluded that this skeleton is Tsar Nicholas II. 17. It is believed that the male identities of the other skeletons were: The royal doctor and the two adult male servants 18. Anna’s mtDNA should be compared to Prince Philip’s because if she was a Romanov, her DNA should match his. 19. Carl Maucher’s mDNA was examined in order to determine whether Anna was Franziska Schanzkowska. If their DNA matched, then she wasn’t a Romanov. 20. Okay. 21. a) Even though Anna Anderson was cremated, histologists found microscopic slides from a hospital that Anna was treated at. With the new DNA technologies today, the scientists were able to take off the ‘cover slip’ from the slides, and extract the DNA.     b) Based on the findings of Michael Baden and Syd Mandeibaum, Anna Anderson was not the same person as Anastasia. They know this because the DNA didn’t match Prince Philip’s of any of the other royal family members. c) Today, it is believed that Prince Alexei and Princess Anastasia were partially cremated after they were executed. After the Bolshevik soldiers shot them and cremated the two youngest royal family members, they scattered their remains.