World's oldest DNA reveals how ice age mammoths evolved
World's oldest DNA reveals how ice age mammoths evolved Discovery of new lineage, insights into when and how fast mammoths adapted to cold climate The mammoth that inhabited North America during the last ice age was a hybrid animal. An international research team has sequenced DNA recovered from mammoth remains that are up to 1.2 million years old. The analyses, funded in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation, show that the Columbian mammoth that inhabited North America during the last ice age was a hybrid between the woolly mammoth and a previously unknown genetic lineage of mammoth. The study also provides new insights into when and how fast mammoths became adapted to cold climate. The samples are a thousand times older than Viking remains and pre-date the existence of humans and Neanderthals, say the scientists. Around one million years ago, there were no woolly nor Columbian mammoths, as they had not yet evolved. Researchers have now managed to analyze the