{"id":21924,"date":"2022-12-08T12:44:24","date_gmt":"2022-12-08T12:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/08\/oldest-dna-samples-discovered-lodged-in-ice-age-sediment-the-register\/"},"modified":"2022-12-08T12:44:24","modified_gmt":"2022-12-08T12:44:24","slug":"oldest-dna-samples-discovered-lodged-in-ice-age-sediment-the-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/08\/oldest-dna-samples-discovered-lodged-in-ice-age-sediment-the-register\/","title":{"rendered":"Oldest DNA samples discovered, lodged in Ice Age sediment \u2022 The Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Scientists have recovered the oldest DNA samples yet, in sediment left over from the Ice Age in Northern Greenland, according to research published in Nature<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"ancient_Kap_Kobenhavn_formation_drawing\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ancient Kap Kobenhavn formation drawing Image Credit: Beth Zaiken<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The tiny fragments of DNA molecules, preserved in clay and quartz, are estimated to date back two million years, making them the oldest specimens discovered yet. The record was previously held<\/a> by a DNA sample taken from the frozen molar of a million-year-old woolly mammoth lodged in permafrost in Eastern Siberia.<\/p>\n

Complete sets of DNA allow scientists to piece together an organism’s genome \u2013 used to characterize and identify different species. However, when organisms die and decompose, their strands of DNA erode and break apart over time. Specific environmental conditions like extreme cold can sometimes slow that process and preserve some DNA.<\/p>\n

The team of researchers led by the University of Copenhagen had to use statistical algorithms to recover an estimated 41 different samples from the broken, jumbled molecules. They identified various plants, animals, and microorganisms that once supported a rich ecosystem in Northern Greenland during the Ice Age millions of years ago.<\/p>\n

The samples<\/a> show the Kap K\u00f8benhavn Formation \u2013 now an arid patch of polar desert \u2013 used to harbor poplar, birch, and thuja trees surrounded by various shrubs and herbs. Hare, mastodons \u2013 the shorter and stockier distant relatives of mammoths \u2013 reindeers, rodents, and geese roamed free on land, whilst green algae and horseshoe crabs lived in water.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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