The discovery of the oldest DNA in the world dating back two million years

Scientists have announced that they have extracted the oldest DNA to date, two million years old. This key discovery was made from Pleistocene deposits in Greenland, opening a new chapter for paleogenetics.

A discovery that will revolutionize genetics. Scientists announced in The scientific journal Nature, after the discovery of the oldest DNA extract ever identified. It was discovered two million years ago from Pleistocene deposits in Greenland, opening a new chapter for paleontology.

“DNA can live for 2 million years, twice as long as previously existing DNA,” said Mikkel Winter Pedersen, one of the study’s lead authors.

technological achievement

At least 41 objects have been studied by scientists. Thanks to innovative technology, they were able to take these fragments, which are twice as old as previous records, from the bone of a Siberian mammoth.

The method used “provides a fundamental understanding of why minerals or sediments are able to preserve DNA… It’s a Pandora’s box we’re about to open,” says Karina Sand, who leads the biology group at the University of Copenhagen and was involved in the study. .

The fragments are so well preserved because they are frozen and contained in small exploited surfaces that, with this discovery, Mikkel Winter Pedersen, “we break the barrier of what we thought we could achieve in terms of genetic studies.”

“One million years was long thought to be the limit for DNA survival, but today we’re doubling that. And that’s clearly prompting us to look for sites.”

Green Earth and its unique environment

The scientists’ work began in 2006, and thus they were able to create a “picture” of the area two million years ago. However, in addition to the DNA fragments, the presence of a mastodon alone is particularly notable because it has not been found before until now in the North.

Various DNA fragments have been identified in sediments’ from the far northern part of green landIt’s called Cape Copenhagen, and (it’s) from an environment we don’t see anywhere on Earth today,” said Mikkel Winther Pedersen.

Indeed, today Cape Copenhagen has become a polar desert. Various types of sediments have been discovered there, including excellently preserved fossils of plants and insects. However, the researchers did not seek to establish the DNA of the items found, and there was little information about the possible presence of animals.

Therefore, this unique environment makes scientists think about the adaptability of different species that rubbed shoulders at that time. Greenland, Danish for “green land,” had temperatures 11 to 17 degrees Celsius warmer than today, but at these latitudes the sun doesn’t set in the summer months or rise during the winter.

Finding Siberian mammoths there “makes you think about species resilience: how species could actually adapt to one climate, and different types of climate, might be different than we thought before,” concluded Mikkel Winther Pedersen.