Evolution as a process: ancient DNA found two mya (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, December 07, 2022, 19:10 (717 days ago) @ David Turell

In Greenland:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2350324-dna-from-2-million-years-ago-is-the-oldest...

"DNA from 2 million years ago recovered from sediments in Greenland is the oldest preserved DNA found to date, blowing past the previous benchmark of 1 million years set in 2021.

“The age of the DNA is twice as old approximately compared to what has been retrieved previously,” says Eske Willerslev at the University of Cambridge.

"The DNA comes from a host of different organisms, enabling Willerslev and his colleagues to reconstruct the ecosystem that existed in northern Greenland 2 million years ago, at a time when the climate was warmer than it is today. Today, the area is Arctic desert and has few organisms, but back then it was a forest inhabited by hares, reindeer and perhaps even mastodons, elephant-like animals that once lived in North America.

"The find suggests that it will be possible to uncover DNA from much more ancient time periods than previously suspected. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out that in the north [the Arctic], we could go twice as far back in time,” says Willerslev.

"He and his team obtained ancient DNA from the Kap København Formation, a series of layers of sand, silt and mud more than 90 metres thick in total. These were laid down 2 million years ago.

"The DNA didn’t come from fossilised organisms, but was instead bound to mineral particles in the sediment layers. This helped preserve the DNA, because enzymes couldn’t get to it to break it down, says team member Karina Sand at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. (my bold)

"This environmental DNA came from the whole range of organisms living in the area. The team detected 102 genera of plants. Some still grow in northern Greenland today, like the shrubs Dryas and Vaccinium. But others no longer live there, like spruce (Picea) trees, hawthorn (Crataegus) and Populus flowers. “It is, in fact, a forest,” says Willerslev.

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"If free-floating DNA can survive this long by binding to mineral particles in cold conditions, it suggests there is truly ancient DNA to be found, says Laura Parducci at Sapienza University of Rome in Italy, who wasn’t involved in the research."

Comment: our ingenuity is reaching back into time. My bold again demonstrates life's molecules can only work with other of life's molecules