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A mammoth tooth discovered from the Siberian permafrost results in the oldest DNA yet uncovered and gives insight into the evolution of the massive beasts.
Genetic substance removed from a 1.2-million-year-old mammoth tooth is the recent record holder for the world s most ancient DNA.
Scientists from Sweden, in the Centre for Palaeogenetics, have examined the DNA and decided that it arrived from an earlier unknown kind of mammoth that has now been named the Krestovka mammoth.
(Photo : Magda Ehlers)
The Columbian Mammoths
The Krestovka mammoth is dubbed after the region of Russia in which it was discovered where it had been concealed in the Siberian permafrost for over a million years.