Finally, an extinct species you can feel good about

The specific strain of the bacteria Yersinia pestis that was responsible for the Black Death in Europe is probably now extinct, according to a new study. The bacterial DNA extracted from historic samples doesn't match modern Y. pestis. This could go a long way toward explaining why the Plague seems significantly less deadly today than it was medieval Europe.

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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Antlan

Interesting how different media outlets have covered the same story:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110829173751.htm
OldBrownSquirrel

…and there was much rejoicing.
Rich Keller

I could see a movie or book with some of the old variety encapsulated in something, like a saint’s garment, in some newly discovered archaeological site. It gets released to pilgrims when on display at a church. Sort of a cross between Andromeda Strain and those Dan Brown books.
- Jonathan Badger
  
  could see a movie or book with some of the old variety encapsulated in something, like a saint’s garment, in some newly discovered archaeological site
  
  That would be relatively unlikely. The DNA of the historical samples is highly degraded. You can get bits and pieces useful for making evolutionary trees, but not viable cells. Perhaps there could be some viable cells if they were captured in a permafrost somewhere.
  - Rich Keller
    
    You have a valid point. I was thinking of some sensationalized fictional thing that uses science as a springboard for plot points. You, know, your typical Hollywood crap.
- travtastic
  
  Here you go!
  
  Jeff Long’s Year Zero
  - Rich Keller
    
    It’s a Crichton double-whammy, what with the disease and the clones.
- juniper berry
  
  For a good use of this device, I recommend Connie Willis’ ˆDoomsday Bookˆ,
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_Book_%28novel%29
lknope

Might have a little to do with sewer systems and pest control as well.
SamSam

Is there any explanation of guesses as to why it went extinct? Was it just that it was too virulent, and so killed all its hosts too quickly?

That seems surprising, and would imply that pretty much no one who became infected lived — no one developed resistances or immunities.

Or, I guess there’s no evolutionary advantage to being so virulent (generally it’s a disadvantage, of course), so there could have either been a selective pressure towards less virulence, or just genetic drift.

In which case, it’s less that the species went extinct and more that it just evolved. I guess that’s still a kind of extinction. It just feels weird to say that Australopithecus afarensis, one of our latest ancestors, went “extinct,” but we don’t say our great-grandparents are extinct.
- Jonathan Badger
  
  Well, people seem to have no problems saying things like “the dinosaurs went extinct” even though their descendents the birds are still around (which cladistically actually are dinosaurs)…
http://www.facebook.com/TheRealGregCrow Greg Crow

Bacteria and viruses are all noted for their ability to change and adapt. The virulence of any given disease organism can switch on and off over time. So I’m not holding my breath.
fraac

Have some of this in my kitchen sink. I pour Harpic drain cleaner on it every so often and whatever is thriving must be pretty resistant.
herrnichte

@samfen up there gets to a point that i’ve yet to see properly discussed anywhere in association with this science news (to whit): a disease/parasite that quickly kills its host is a dumb parasite (which will quickly self-eliminate). a smart parasite keeps its host alive for as long as possible to provide a safe productive haven for more parasite copies (cf. malaria). So given the lethality of the “black death” that Y. pestis of old wiped itself out doesn’t come as much of a surprise to this arm-chair evolution enthusiast.
Camp Freddie

I’ve now seen 3 wildly different stories about this story.

BBC: New study rejects “caused by rats” theory of Black Death
Ars Technica: New study confirms Y.pestis strain to be cause of black death
BoingBoing: New study shows black death bacteria is extinct

The Ars story is the closest to the truth, though all have a grain of truth in them.

TL;DR:
Y.pestis caused the black death and modern varieties of bubonic plague. The black death strain is slightly different to modern plague strains.
http://www.facebook.com/teleny Alissa Mower Clough

As author of “Yersinia: A Gram-Negative Romance”, I find this strangely comforting. (It means that the microbe in the story is more than likely a safe mutant.)
Kaleberg

It could also be possible that the people susceptible to the more virulent reactions to Y. pestis are extinct. Isn’t there some theory that northern European resistance to AIDS might be related to mechanisms to fight the plague?
Lobster

If your FACE, rats!