2.

4 Million-Year-Old DNA Is Oldest Ever Recovered

The DNA fragments collected from permafrost in northern Greenland unlock insights into an
ancient ecosystem.

DNA fragments recovered from an ice sheet in northern Greenland represent the oldest DNA
ever found, a group of Danish scientists report today (December 7) in Nature. The team dates the
samples to around 2.4 million years ago, making the DNA sequenced nearly twice the age of
the previously oldest DNA, which was recovered from a Siberian mammoth bone.

“It’s a tour de force. Simply astounding,” Ross MacPhee, a paleontologist at the American
Museum of Natural History who was not involved with the work, tells Science.

A researcher prepares a sediment core for sampling in Copenhagen

COURTESY OF NOVA, HHMI TANGLED BANK STUDIOS & HANDFUL OF FILMS

A combination of the site’s soil composition and the plunging ice-age temperatures that began
around 2.5 million years ago preserved the DNA, study coauthor Karina Sand, a geochemist at the
Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre at the University of Copenhagen, tells Science. The trick to
obtaining sequences from such old samples were revised extraction protocols, the outlet explains, which
allowed the team to pry ancient DNA from the quartz and clay in the sediment.

The fragments of ancient DNA found in the ice sheet came from more than 135 different
species, according to The New York Times. DNA fragments collected from the environment are known as
environmental DNA, or eDNA, and are often used to monitor species’ presence and abundance
in modern ecosystems. The Danish scientists used the ancient fragments to do the same thing, analyzing
the DNA in order to determine which species were in the 2.4 million-year-old ecosystem.

See “Warming Climate Hurt Megafauna?”

The researchers found DNA from traditional Arctic inhabitants such as reindeer, lemmings, and Arctic
hares. But to their surprise, they also found modern species that no longer exist in Greenland and
extinct species that wouldn’t normally be associated with the region. Among the modern species
detected were poplar and birch trees as well as horseshoe crabs, none of which still live that far north.
“No one would have predicted an ecosystem like this,” Eske Willerslev, a paleogeneticist at the
University of Cambridge who led the study, tells Science. “It’s an ecosystem with no analog in the
present day.”

One of the most surprising findings is the discovery of DNA of an undocumented branch of mastodons,
Love Dalén, a paleogeneticist from Stockholm University who wasn’t involved with the research, tells
the Times. Previously, he says, the mastodon DNA found closest to the Greenland site was located much
further south in Canada and was much younger at only 75,000 years old.

See “Mastodons on the Move”

“It feels almost magical to be able to infer such a complete picture of an ancient ecosystem from tiny
fragments of preserved DNA,” Beth Shapiro, a paleogeneticist at the University of California, Santa Cruz
who wasn’t involved with the research, tells the Times.

The findings are further confirmation of the value of eDNA and the vast potential of ancient DNA to
unlock new insights into the prehistoric world, Willerslev tells Science. MacPhee concurs, telling the
magazine that it’s now “possible to see a future in which what we now call paleontology all happens in a
molecular biology lab.”
https://www.the-scientist.com/2-million-year-old-dna-is-oldest-ever-recovered-70820

Review
On the first sight article, describe a plain piece of news about recreating
DNA samples, which become possible through the modern technologies and
contemporary science progress.
DNA fragments recovered from an ice sheet in northern Greenland
represent the oldest DNA ever found, a group of Danish scientists report today
in Nature. The team dates the samples to around 2.4 million years ago, making
the DNA sequenced nearly twice the age of the previously oldest DNA, which was
recovered from a Siberian mammoth bone.
Therefore, author tried to describe the outrages potential of such occasion.
That with a modern equipment we can not only find out some useful information
about ancient fauna, but in some way recreate the species, recreating real
“Jurassic Park”.
Of course, it will take a lot of time to make this happen, but for science, it
will be a big contribution to recreate a whole picture of ecosystem existed before
Homo sapiens appeared on Earth. In addition, author of this article found right
quotes to describe such opportunity. I found it very interesting that author didn’t
write the perspectives I have described above, but reading that article everyone
can imagine such situation in near future.
It feels almost magical to be able to infer such a complete picture of an
ancient ecosystem from tiny fragments of preserved DNA
Having solved problem with a history of planet’s ecosystem we can engage
a big interest in human’s mind about ecology and it’s potential for future
engagement not only about the problem of species extinction but global
warming.