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'Hunchback monarch' King Richard III was infected with roundworms

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ANI sydney
Last Updated : Sep 04 2013 | 10:45 AM IST

King Richard III's remains that were rediscovered last year - buried under a car park in northern England - has revealed that the monarch was infected with roundworms.

Reporting in The Lancet on Wednesday, scientists from the Cambridge and Leicester universities said that analysis of the soil around the controversial king's pelvis revealed multiple roundworm eggs.

Piers Mitchell from Cambridge's department of archaeology and anthropology said that the soil surrounding the burial site was also tested but only a few eggs were detected, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Mitchell, who led the research team, said that the roundworm eggs came from a genuine infection and not because of external contamination that was caused by the later dumping of human waste in that area.

The researchers were also in the look out for other kinds of intestinal parasites, like tapeworm, but failed to find any in the samples.

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First Published: Sep 04 2013 | 10:42 AM IST

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