In medieval Europe, scribes often wrapped their books in the hairy hides of animals like deer or boar to act […] ...

They found some of the animal-skin DNA belonged to harp seal populations from Scandinavia, Scotland, Iceland and Greenland — from the land-locked region of Champagne. The manuscripts were likely ...

An international team of archaeologists, bioinformatic specialists, and historians has discovered that many medieval books were bound using seal skin. In their paper published in the journal Royal ...

Some species, like the harp seal, nurse their pups on the ice for only a few weeks, providing nutrient-rich milk that allows the pups to quickly gain weight. Others, like the grey seal, may have a ...

More specifically, the DNA still contained in the book binding allowed researchers to narrow their search to harbor and harp seal populations from Scandinavia, Scotland, Iceland and Greenland ...