The oldest DNA ever found reveals a snapshot of a vanished world

March 27, 2023 12:48 AM

The oldest DNA ever found reveals a snapshot of a vanished world. DNA frozen for 2 million years paints a picture of an extinct ecosystem. At the icy northern tip of Greenland, far into the Arctic Circle, a deep bed of sediment beneath the mouth of a fjord has lain frozen and undisturbed for 2 million years.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (8 comments total)

Very interesting...I'd love to read some more complicated science on this process.
posted by tiny frying pan at 5:57 AM on March 27, 2023

I so very much want to make something out of 2 million year old wood.
posted by Mitheral at 9:15 AM on March 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

I'd love to read some more complicated science on this process

The article links to work published in Nature.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 12:38 PM on March 27, 2023

I was kinda under the impression that DNA has a “half-life” of a few hundred-thousand years -? … the answer’s in the article, isn’t it? Ok, lemme go read that…
posted by From Bklyn at 8:17 PM on March 27, 2023

DNA molecules can bind to the surface of particles of clay which somehow protect them from the ravages of time. We do not know exactly how long DNA can survive in sediment, but if the preservation conditions are ideal, there is no reason to believe that we have found the limit here at two million years.
Satisfying! And astonishing.
posted by From Bklyn at 8:24 PM on March 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

Facinating! Also very much illuminates that the Earth will be perfectly OK when we global warming ourselves into extinction. It's just humans that won't survive. Well, humans and a few hundred thousand other miscellaneous species.
posted by dg at 8:33 PM on March 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

Earth life is resilient and can handle global warming, sure. It's the collateral damage from human beings fighting about it that worries me.
posted by neuracnu at 6:05 AM on March 28, 2023

Humans will survive, civilization might not, but there will be humans. Just 74,000 years ago we were probably down to 3,000-10,000 individual humans and now we're...more than that by a bit.
posted by VTX at 9:13 AM on March 28, 2023