DNA bound to mineral particles in ancient sediment reveals that north Greenland once had spruce forests populated by hares, reindeer and even mastodons
DNA from 2 million years ago recovered from sediments in Greenland is the oldest preserved DNA found to date, blowing past“The age of the DNA is twice as old approximately compared to what has been retrieved previously,” saysThe DNA comes from a host of different organisms, enabling Willerslev and his colleagues to reconstruct the ecosystem that existed in northern Greenland 2 million years ago, at a time when the climate was warmer than it is today.
Today, the area is Arctic desert and has few organisms, but back then it was a forest inhabited by hares, reindeer and perhaps even mastodons, elephant-like animals that once lived in North America.The find suggests that it will be possible to uncover DNA from much more ancient time periods than previously suspected. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out that in the north [the Arctic], we could go twice as far back in time,” says Willerslev.
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