Scientists extract tooth from mummy

Just in time for Halloween, scientists have extracted a tooth from a mummy, hoping to garner enough DNA to decipher its identity, according to a report in the Boston Globe.

Paul H. Chapman, M.D., a Massachusetts General neurosurgeon, led a team from the hospital that gently extracted a molar from the 4,000-year-old head of a mummy.

Grave robbers apparently decapitated the mummy, which came into the hands of scientists excavating the tomb in 1915. The tomb had belonged to Governor and Lady Djehutynakht, who ruled the district of Hermopolis, according to the report, but no one is sure who was buried in it.

Now the Boston Museum of Fine Arts is preparing the head for exhibit. Patches of skin did not yield DNA, but the Egyptologists hope that enough pulp remains protectively encased in the molar that they can at least determine the body's sex.