{"id":471519,"date":"2026-06-11T05:42:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T05:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/471519\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T05:42:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T05:42:13","slug":"scientists-dug-through-ancient-squirrel-poop-and-found-a-huge-surprise-sciencealert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/471519\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Dug Through Ancient Squirrel Poop And Found a Huge Surprise : ScienceAlert"},"content":{"rendered":"

A huge treasure trove of ancient DNA from animals including extinct woolly mammoths has been discovered in frozen squirrel feces in Canada’s remote Yukon territory, scientists said<\/a> Tuesday.<\/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

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However, the “spectacular” amount of information they uncovered suggests that feces 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 behavior”, 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

\"AnResearchers analyzed permafrost samples collected from ground squirrel burrows that span several glacial periods and can remain frozen and sealed for thousands of years. (Government of Yukon<\/a>)<\/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<\/a> 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\u2026 it wasn’t until some paleontologist came by investigating that they found him in there.”<\/p>\n

\"CompositePhoto taken during field recovery from the Gold Run site in Canada’s remote Yukon territory. Insets show a nest latrine<\/a> and samples. (Murchie et al., Nat. Commun., 2026<\/a>)Back from the dead?<\/p>\n

The scientists used the DNA to reconstruct 18 mitochondrial genomes, including for six woolly mammoths<\/a> that lived in different eras<\/a>.<\/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 skepticism 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

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Murchie, who does not work for Colossal, said the genetic data they found would be made publicly available, so the company could use it<\/a>.<\/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

Related: Giant Whale Graveyard Found in The Ocean Is Like a Drowned City of The Dead<\/a><\/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 feces,” he added.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Agence France-Presse<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A huge treasure trove of ancient DNA from animals including extinct woolly mammoths has been discovered in frozen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":["post-471519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}