DNA solves the mystery of a body found in the Arctic in 1859

Researchers have identified four additional sailors from Sir John Franklin's ill-fated 1845 Arctic expedition, including one man whose identity had remained the subject of debate for more than a century.

Anthropologists from the Faculty of Arts at the University of Waterloo led the research, using DNA recovered from skeletal remains and comparing it with samples provided by living descendants. The four new matches raise the number of Franklin expedition sailors identified through DNA to six.

By April 1848, Franklin's two ships, Erebus and Terror, had been trapped in Arctic ice for nearly two years. The 105 surviving crew members abandoned the vessels and began a desperate attempt to reach safety, traveling along the west coast of King William Island, Nunavut, while hauling boats on sleds.