Oldest DNA ever analyzed shows Greenland from 2 million years ago

Using DNA, scientists have created a picture of what Greenland must have looked like 2 million years ago. It is the first time such ancient DNA samples have been successfully analysed. The results were published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature.

These are DNA samples that were obtained from soil in the north of the island. Such material provides information about the entire ecosystem of a certain period. The samples contained traces of DNA from all kinds of plants and animals.

Now the area is a polar desert with almost no vegetation, but millions of years ago the island had a great variety of flora and fauna. DNA samples provide insight into a unique prehistoric landscape, scientists say.

The ecosystem back then cannot be compared to any other ecosystem today, says Professor Willerslev of the Universities of Cambridge and Copenhagen.

Among others, the extinct mastodon – a mix between a mammoth and an elephant – once inhabited Greenland. Conifers, birches and poplars also grew there.

The material also shows that climate change was also taking place during that time. The temperature was much higher than now, it was estimated between 11 and 19 degrees more. If more research is done in the future, it could provide insight into what the world faces when it comes to climate change.

Until now, scientists had little knowledge of what Greenland looked like millions of years ago, because DNA decays over time and animal and plant fossils are rarely found there. Before this study was conducted, only fossils had shown that dung beetles and hares once lived in the area, Willerslev said against the BBC.

Thanks to technological developments, the research team managed to extract information from damaged DNA fragments. This was then compared with genetic material from already known plant and animal species.

The samples come from the deposits of a rock formation at the northern tip of Greenland. They were taken from a shallow fjord as early as 2006, but the technology was not yet advanced enough to analyze them.

“You really get a bigger picture of what the ecosystem looked like at any given time,” said one of the researchers.