Ancient DNA News

November 2, 2024

Top Headlines

Ancient DNA Brings to Life History of the Iconic Aurochs, Whose Tale Is Intertwined With Climate Change and Human Culture

Oct. 30, 2024 — Geneticists have deciphered the prehistory of aurochs -- the animals that were the focus of some of the most iconic early human art -- by analyzing 38 genomes harvested from bones dating across 50 ...

Fossil Hunters Strike Gold With New Species

Oct. 29, 2024 — Paleontologists have identified fossils of an ancient species of bug that spent the past 450 million years covered in fool's gold in central New York. The new species, Lomankus edgecombei, is a distant relative of modern-day horseshoe crabs, ...

Fossils Unveil How Southern Europe's Ecosystem Changed Through Glacial-Interglacial Stages

Oct. 23, 2024 — Fossils from more than 600,000 years ago reveal how Southern Europe's animal community shifted between warm and cold climate fluctuations, according to a new ...

'Paleo-Robots' to Help Scientists Understand How Fish Started to Walk on Land

Oct. 23, 2024 — The transition from water to land is one of the most significant events in the history of life on Earth. Now, a team of roboticists, palaeontologists and biologists is using robots to study how the ...

Latest Headlines

updated 4:27pm EDT

Paleontologists Discover Colorado 'Swamp Dweller' That Lived Alongside Dinosaurs

Oct. 23, 2024 — The new mammal lived in Colorado 70 to 75 million years ago -- a time when a vast inland sea covered large portions of the state, and animals like ...

Ancient Viral DNA in the Human Genome Linked to Multiple Sclerosis and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Oct. 21, 2024 — New research has revealed a connection between ancient viral DNA embedded in the human genome and the genetic risk for two major diseases that affect ...

Adaptability of Trees Persists After Millions of Years of Climate Change

Oct. 14, 2024 — Seven of the most common forest trees in Europe have been shown to be able to shelter their genetic diversity from major shifts in environmental conditions. This is despite their ranges having shrunk ...

Genomic Study Identifies Human, Animal Hair in 'Man-Eater' Lions' Teeth

Oct. 11, 2024 — Scientists analyzed hairs extracted from the broken teeth of two 19th century 'man-eater' lions. Their analysis revealed DNA from giraffe, human, oryx, waterbuck, wildebeest and zebra as prey, along ...

Fossils and Fires: Insights Into Early Modern Human Activity in the Jungles of Southeast Asia

Oct. 10, 2024 — Studying microscopic layers of dirt dug from the Tam Pa Ling cave site in northeastern Laos has provided a team of archaeologists further insights ...

Another Franklin Expedition Crew Member Has Been Identified

Sep. 24, 2024 — The skeletal remains of a senior officer of Sir John Franklin's 1845 Northwest Passage expedition have been identified using DNA and genealogical ...

World's Oldest Cheese Reveals Origins of Kefir

Sep. 25, 2024 — Scientists successfully extracted and analyzed DNA from ancient cheese samples found alongside the Tarim Basin mummies in China, dating back approximately 3,600 years. The research suggests a new ...

Insights Into South African Population History from 10,000-Year-Old Human DNA

Sep. 19, 2024 — Ancient DNA has provided spectacular insights into human history, particularly in Europe and Asia, where researchers have reconstructed the genomes ...

South African Rock Art Possibly Inspired by Long-Extinct Species

Sep. 18, 2024 — A mysterious tusked animal depicted in South African rock art might portray an ancient species preserved as fossils in the same region, according to a new ...

Genomics Reveals Sled Dogs' Siberian Lineage

Sep. 16, 2024 — New research examines thousands of years of Arctic sled dog ancestry and reveals when and how Siberian and Alaskan sled dogs' DNA ...

Trilobite Fossils from Upstate New York Reveal 'Extra' Set of Legs

Sep. 12, 2024 — A new study finds that a trilobite species with exceptionally well-preserved fossils from upstate New York has an additional set of legs underneath its head. The research suggests that having a fifth ...

Research Reveals Reality of Ice Age Teen Puberty

Sep. 12, 2024 — Landmark new research shows Ice Age teens from 25,000 years ago went through similar puberty stages as modern-day ...

The Neanderthals May Have Become Extinct Because of Their Isolated Lifestyle

Sep. 12, 2024 — Neanderthal remains recently discovered in a cave in France support well-known theory of why the Neanderthals became extinct, researchers behind a new study ...

Chemists Explain Why Dinosaur Collagen May Have Survived for Millions of Years

Sep. 4, 2024 — Chemists offer a new explanation for how collagen in dinosaur bones may have survived millions of years: An atomic-level interaction prevents its bonds from being broken down by ...

Ancient Sea Cow Attacked by a Crocodile and Sharks Sheds New Light on Prehistoric Food Chains

Aug. 29, 2024 — A new study showing how a prehistoric sea cow was preyed upon by not one, but two different carnivores -- a crocodilian and a shark -- is revealing clues into both the predation tactics of ancient ...

Darwin's Fear Was Unjustified: Writing Evolutionary History by Bridging the Gaps a Big Issue

Aug. 26, 2024 — Fossils are used to reconstruct evolutionary history, but not all animals and plants become fossils and many fossils are destroyed before we can find them (e.g., the rocks that contain the fossils ...

Matching Dinosaur Footprints Found on Opposite Sides of the Atlantic Ocean

Aug. 26, 2024 — An international team of paleontologists has found matching sets of Early Cretaceous dinosaur footprints on what are now two different ...

Fossil Hotspots in Africa Obscure a More Complete Picture of Human Evolution

Aug. 20, 2024 — A new study shows how the mismatch between where fossils are preserved and where humans likely lived may influence our understanding of early human ...

Ancient DNA Reveals Indigenous Dog Lineages Found at Jamestown, Virginia

Aug. 16, 2024 — Previous scientific studies have indicated that North American dog lineages were replaced with European ones between 1492 and the present day. To better understand the timing of this replacement, ...

Decoding the World's Largest Animal Genome

Aug. 14, 2024 — Scientists have sequenced the largest genome of all animals, the lungfish genome. Their data help to explain how the fish-ancestors of today's land vertebrates were able to conquer ...

Early Mammals Lived Longer

Aug. 8, 2024 — What distinguishes the growth and development patterns of early mammals of the Jurassic period? Paleontologists have been able to gauge the lifespan and growth rates of these ancient animals, and ...

Smallest Arm Bone in Human Fossil Record Sheds Light on the Dawn of Homo Floresiensis

Aug. 6, 2024 — A new study reports the discovery of extremely rare early human fossils from the Indonesian island of Flores, including an astonishingly small adult limb bone. Dated to about 700,000 years old, the ...

Half a Billion-Year-Old Spiny Slug Reveals the Origins of Mollusks

Aug. 2, 2024 — Exceptional fossils with preserved soft parts reveal that the earliest mollusks were flat, armored slugs without shells. The new species, Shishania aculeata, was covered with hollow, organic, ...

Scientists Assess How Large Dinosaurs Could Really Get

July 24, 2024 — A study looks at the maximum possible sizes of dinosaurs, using the carnivore, Tyrannosaurus rex, as an example. Using computer modelling, experts produced estimates that T. Rex might have been 70% ...

Taco-Shaped Arthropod Fossils Gives New Insights Into the History of the First Mandibulates

July 23, 2024 — Palaeontologists are helping resolve the evolution and ecology of Odaraia, a taco-shaped marine animal that lived during the Cambrian period. Fossils reveal Odaraia had mandibles. Palaeontologists ...

Nanoscopic Imaging Aids in Understanding Protein, Tissue Preservation in Ancient Bones

July 23, 2024 — A pilot study shows that nanoscopic 3-D imaging of ancient bone not only provides further insight into the changes soft tissues undergo during fossilization, it also has potential as a fast, ...

New Snake Discovery Rewrites History, Points to North America's Role in Snake Evolution

July 19, 2024 — A new species of fossil snake unearthed in Wyoming is rewriting our understanding of snake evolution. The discovery, based on four remarkably well-preserved specimens found curled together in a ...

Evidence for Butchery of Giant Armadillo-Like Mammals in Argentina 21,000 Years Ago

July 17, 2024 — Cut marks on fossils could be evidence of humans exploiting large mammals in Argentina more than 20,000 years ago, according to a new ...

Ancient Microbes Offer Clues to How Complex Life Evolved

July 16, 2024 — Researchers have discovered that a single-celled organism, a close relative of animals, harbors the remnants of ancient giant viruses woven into its own genetic code. This finding sheds light on how ...

First Ever 3D Reconstruction of 52,000-Year-Old Woolly Mammoth Chromosomes Thanks to Serendipitously Freeze-Dried Skin

July 11, 2024 — An international research team has assembled the genome and 3D chromosomal structures of a 52,000-year-old woolly mammoth -- the first time such a feat has been achieved for any ancient DNA sample. ...