INNSBRUCK, Austria, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- Scientists say DNA analysis allowed them to identify 19 living Austrian men related Oetzi the Iceman, whose 5,300-year-old frozen body was found in the Alps.
Researchers at the Institute of Legal Medicine at Innsbruck Medical University said the DNA tests were taken from blood donors in Tyrol. The men who matched the Iceman's DNA have not been informed of the connection, the BBC reported.
The same mutation might be found in the nearby Swiss region of Engadine and in Italy's South Tyrol region, institute researcher Walther Parson said.
"We have already found Swiss and Italian partners so that we can pursue our research," he said.
Women were not included in the study, the researchers said, as matching their genes to the Iceman would require a different procedure than the one used in tracking male genes.
Experts have determined Oetzi, found frozen in the Italian Alps in 1991, died from a wound caused by an arrow.
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