Saturday, August 1, 2026
Science

Ancient ground squirrel droppings reveal Arctic's rich evolutionary history

Ground squirrel droppings, preserved for millennia in the Yukon's deep permafrost, have yielded an enormous amount of environmental DNA from dozens of species of plants, insects, microbes and large mammals, offering detailed genetic information about an environment that no longer exists. It is among...

Ancient ground squirrel droppings reveal Arctic's rich evolutionary history
Image: Phys.org
Ground squirrel droppings, preserved for millennia in the Yukon's deep permafrost, have yielded an enormous amount of environmental DNA from dozens of species of plants, insects, microbes and large mammals, offering detailed genetic information about an environment that no longer exists. It is among the oldest ancient DNA ever recovered and sequenced.

Originally published at Phys.org

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