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Fieldwork carried out about a decade ago is only now changing researchers’ understanding of major mammal extinctions during the Ice Age. Analysis of DNA trapped in frozen soil samples revealed that interesting species such as the woolly mammoth and wild horse in the Yukon survived longer than previously thought.
Soil samples were taken from the Klondike region of the Canadian Yukon in early 2010, but no work has been published on them. Unlike traditional DNA samples, which can be taken from the bones or hair of certain organisms, soil (even ancient ones) contains environmental DNA, which is genetic material that is sequestered in the microscopic animal remains they leave behind as they travel through the environment.
The Cold Klondike core was later found in a McMaster University refrigerator by Tyler Murchie, an archaeologist specializing in ancient DNA at the university, who set out to re-investigate them. It was the work of Murchi and his team published Today in Nature Communication.
“I found it in the freezer while looking for a new project during my PhD,” Murchie, lead author of the new research paper, said in an email. “One of my responsibilities at the Ancient DNA Center is freezer maintenance, so I have a good idea of the cool stuff that might be out there waiting for someone to study.”
One of the mysteries the team is trying to understand is the conditions under which a large North American species became extinct during the last Ice Age. Animals such as the woolly mammoth, steppe bison and wild horse have been scattered across continents for thousands of years, but the first two have disappeared from the planet. (Modern horses are directly related to Ice Age horses.)
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The killing of animals is usually associated with one of two things: a Climate warming Removing their food source, or hunting by the human race. Recent Research He usually refers to the first.
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“I think a combination of climatic, environmental and human stresses best explains the loss, but more research is needed to solve a problem that Quaternary scientists have faced for about 270 years,” Murchi said.
In DNA found in ancient ice sheets, the team found evidence that large mammal species were not breeding well even before climate change. In other words, the abundance of DNA in the samples began to decrease before climate change. (The team used radiocarbon dating of plant material in soil samples to determine their age.) But the animals did not disappear quickly. Hairy Mammoths and North Americakuda DNA remains in the sample Until as recently as 5,000 years ago, in the middle of the Holocene, About 8000 years later the animal is considered extinct.
Rich data provides a unique window into Megafau population dynamicsHendrik Poinar, an evolutionary geneticist at McMaster University and lead author of the research paper, said at one university: release.
It is true, but this information is missing. As the climate warms, This time at an alarming rate for human reasons, permafrost loses its immortality. Vast puddles appeared in the northern part of the planet, causing swathes of land to collapse big gutter. Thawing also threatens the genetic information stored cold in the frozen ground. However, at the same time, the loss of the ice sheet has led to some surprising discoveries as preserved remains emerge from the ice, including Still a furry cave lion cub and 30,000 year old wolf head.
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