Oldest Known DNA Found in Frozen Greenland Mud

Posted on July 5, 2007

National Geographic reports that researchers in Southern Greenland drilled through the ice sheet to obtain an ice core from the frozen mud beneath. In the mud sample they found DNA from 800,000 years ago that shows Greenland once had a vibrant ecosystem.

But the newfound DNA-genetic material from pine trees, butterflies, and other organisms that lived as much as 800,000 years ago-tells a story of a much greener and vibrant past.
Hundreds of thousands of years ago southern Greenland had thriving forests similar to those in northern Canada today, says an international team of 30 scientists led by Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
The find surpasses the previous record for the oldest DNA, which came from mammoths and other animals frozen in Siberia about 300,000 to 400,000 years ago.

DNA of spruce and pine trees was also discovered meaning forests may once have been a feature on Greenland. The study also found that Greenland's ice sheet did not melt as much as previously thought during the last interglacial period 125,000 years ago.

EARTH