Researchers discover the oldest known DNA to date - and are surprised by the creatures that match it
Created: 09/12/2022 15:01
By: Marcus Giebel
The DNA that researchers have now sequenced is two million years old.
The genetic material was found in Greenland.
It comes from animals that the scientists would not have suspected there.
Munich - Thanks to their years of work in Greenland, researchers have made a historic discovery.
As
Nature
reports, the scientists found DNA sequences on the northeastern tip of the largest island on earth that are two million years old - making them the oldest genetic material ever discovered.
Traces in the frozen ground suggest that the region was once home to the mammoths - also known as true mastodons - which became extinct 10,000 years ago, and reindeer.
"Nobody would have predicted this ecosystem in northern Greenland at that point in time," said Eske Willerslev, a paleogeneticist involved in the now published study.
His colleague Love Dalen from the Stockholm Natural History Museum thinks the discovery is "pretty awesome" and agrees: "You wouldn't have expected a mammoth there in a million years."
So far, references to the elephant-like proboscidea had been discovered primarily in Africa, America, Asia and Europe - including Germany.
Were once also at home in Greenland: Researchers came across DNA from mastodons (here a figure of a gomphotherium).
© IMAGO / perspective
Researchers discover DNA that is millions of years old: 16 million fragments have been secured
Dalen's team broke the world record last year when they recovered partial genomes from mammoth remains millions of years old from Siberia.
The researchers hoped to be able to restore and interpret older sequences as well.
For example, samples from northern Greenland have been stored in Copenhagen since 2006.
These came from the so-called Cape Kobenhavn Formation, which formed two million years ago.
Over the years, Willerslev and his team secured more than 16 million DNA fragments from there.
Comparisons with the genes of modern plants and animals made it possible to create a snapshot of Cape Kobenhavn two million years ago.
At that time it was significantly warmer in Greenland, but the researchers were surprised that they found traces of poplar, spruce and yew.
You can still find them in Greenland today: caribou are the North American representatives of reindeer.
© IMAGO / Nature Picture Library
Scientists surprised by discovered DNA: Mammoths also lived on Greenland
And it wasn't just the flora that caused amazement: DNA from rodents, geese and rabbits was also unearthed - alongside that of mammoths and reindeer.
Willerslev emphasizes: “In the opinion of paleontologists, reindeer should not have survived.
They shouldn't have existed at the time.” The mammoths were thought to have lived in the forests of North America, but not further north.
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Ludovic Orlando, a specialist in ancient DNA at the Center for Anthropology and Genomics in Toulouse, clarifies: "One would have expected that such gigantic animals would be hard to miss in the fossil record." But the world is full of wonders.
This shows that surprising insights into ecosystems dating back millions of years can also be gained from old sediment DNA.
With the help of their research work, the scientists also hope to be able to make statements about how future ecosystems will react to climate change.
But until then it is still a long way.
Willerslev marvels: "These organisms have an adaptability in terms of composition and distribution that we do not understand and cannot predict."
(mg)
Researchers also made a discovery in a 6,500-year-old tomb.
Another team came across a supposed vampire during excavations.
