Scientists pull ancient RNA from a wooly mammoth's body
Headline from Delaware Public Media
Scientists have extracted the oldest RNA molecules out of a wooly mammoth, gaining a snapshot into the processes at work in the extinct mammal's body just before it died.
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Scientists have extracted the oldest RNA molecules out of a wooly mammoth, gaining a snapshot into the processes at work in the extinct mammal's body just before it died.
Some 39,000 years ago, a woolly mammoth died in present-day Siberia, destined to be blanketed by ice and permafrost that would end up preserving its body — even down to the hair and muscle.
Researchers from Stockholm University have—for the first time ever—managed to successfully isolate and sequence RNA molecules from Ice Age woolly mammoths. These RNA sequences are the oldest ever recovered and come from mammoth tissue preserved in the Siberian permafrost for nearly 40,000 years.
Scientists have extracted the oldest RNA molecules out of a woolly mammoth, gaining a snapshot into the processes at work in the extinct mammal's body just before it died.
