Scientists Have Sequenced Mammoth DNA That's Over a Million Years Old 17 FEBRUARY 2021 In a feat right at the limits of our scientific capabilities, an international team of geneticists has recovered and sequenced the oldest DNA to date. From the teeth of three ancient mammoths that roamed Siberia between 700,000 and 1.2 million years ago, the researchers extracted extremely degraded DNA, and pieced it back together to reveal a previously unknown genetic mammoth lineage.
Previously, the oldest recovered DNA sample was from a horse bone found in the Yukon permafrost, dating back to between 560,000 and 780,000 years ago. "This DNA is incredibly old," said evolutionary geneticist Love Dalén of the Centre for Palaeogenetics in Sweden. "The samples are a thousand times older than Viking remains, and even pre-date the existence of humans and Neanderthals."