Oldest sequenced DNA belonged to mammoth

[Eldorado 61,916]

The oldest DNA ever decoded belonged to a mammoth from a mysterious, previously unknown lineage that lived about 1.2 million years ago, a new study finds. 

Previously, the oldest known sequenced genome came from a horse that lived up to 780,000 years ago, in what is now Canada's Yukon Territory.

Now, the mammoth discovery, "is, with a wide margin, the oldest DNA ever recovered," study senior researcher Love Dalén, a professor of evolutionary genetics at the Center for Palaeogenetics in Stockholm, said at a news conference Tuesday (Feb. 16).

The remains of the mysterious mammoth were discovered near Siberia's Krestovka River (now the mammoth's namesake).

Full monty at Live Science: Link

Million-year-old mammoth genomes shatter record for oldest ancient DNA.

At Nature dot com: Link

Edited February 18 by Eldorado

[Piney 72,760]

Quote

Woolly mammoths mated with a mammoth from Krestovka's mysterious line about 420,000 years ago, leading to a hybrid mammoth we know today as the Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi). 

Fascinating.

I wonder if the portrayal of the Columbian, which lived as far South as Central America as hairless is accurate anymore. 

[Jon the frog 2,679]

2 hours ago, Piney said:

Fascinating.

I wonder if the portrayal of the Columbian, which lived as far South as Central America as hairless is accurate anymore. 

Don't know if they are sources possible of well preserved dna in the US, do baygall bog could preserve corpses ?

Edited February 18 by Jon the frog

[Piney 72,760]

48 minutes ago, Jon the frog said:

Don't know if they are sources possible of well preserved dna in the US, do baygall bog could preserve corpses ?

Maybe, the cedar swamps here preserve Archaic canoes but they aren't old enough to preserve anything beyond 9,000 years.

We hit a bog deposit 150ft down in Salem County but it's too deep to excavate. The incredible part is it's probably Eocene and was buried by the Toms River-Chesapeake Bay impact.

The clammers pull up mammoth bones but the salt water destroys DNA.