A huge treasure trove of ancient DNA from animals including extinct woolly mammoths has been discovered in frozen squirrel faeces in Canada’s remote Yukon territory, scientists said recently.<\/p>\n
The DNA found deep inside sealed-off burrows is between 3,000 and 700,000 years old, offering a rare window into how life has changed over the millennia.<\/p>\n
As well as DNA from woolly mammoths \u2013 which the US company Colossal claims it is trying to “de-extinct” \u2013 genetic material was also found from wolves, bison, horses, a cheetah and hundreds of plants.<\/p>\n
Tyler Murchie, a paleogenomics researcher at Canada’s McMaster University and lead author of a new study, admitted that digging through squirrel poop might sound “less appealing” than discovering, say, a mammoth tusk.<\/p>\n
However the “spectacular” amount of information they uncovered suggests that faeces is an overlooked way to see into our planet’s distant past, he added.<\/p>\n
The scientists had just been expecting to study the squirrel’s microbiome before coming across the “really surprising biodiversity of organisms”, Murchie said.<\/p>\n
It turned out that arctic ground squirrels were ideal subjects for this research because of their “natural archivist behaviour”, he explained.<\/p>\n
The squirrels are only conscious for around four months a year, spending the rest of their life in hibernation.<\/p>\n
So when they are awake, “they’ve got to get out there and eat as much as they can of everything,” Murchie said.<\/p>\n
The squirrels pack their burrows with nuts, seeds, leaves, bones, fur and anything else they can find.<\/p>\n
But over time, rising permafrost permanently sealed off some of the burrows in the Yukon, creating a perfectly preserved time capsule.<\/p>\n
Murchie said they even found a “super cute little guy” frozen in time.<\/p>\n
“He just went to sleep one season, then he never woke up… it wasn’t until some palaeontologist came by investigating that they found him in there.”<\/p>\n
Back from the dead?<\/p>\n
The scientists used the DNA to reconstruct 18 mitochondrial genomes, including for six woolly mammoths that lived in different eras.<\/p>\n
This involves using computers to stitch together DNA fragments, like puzzle pieces, Murchie explained.<\/p>\n
Colossal has declared its intention to resurrect the woolly mammoth, which went extinct around 4,000 years ago.<\/p>\n
However experts have expressed scepticism about the claim, saying the resulting animal would be more like an Asian elephant with some genetic tweaks to make it resemble a mammoth.<\/p>\n
Murchie, who does not work for Colossal, said the genetic data they found would be made publicly available, so the company could use it.<\/p>\n
“But they already have so much DNA to go off of \u2013 whole genomes from different organisms \u2013 so I’m sure ours is a drop in the bucket,” he added.<\/p>\n
The team behind the latest research, which was published in the journal Nature Communications, is working on another study describing what the DNA reveals about the woolly mammoth’s evolution.<\/p>\n
Murchie could not speak about that future research, other than to say it was “super cool”.<\/p>\n
“I can’t believe that we were able to get these insights from squirrel faeces,” he added. \u2013 By\u00a0Daniel Lawle\/AFP<\/p>\n
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