Danish researchers extracted biological DNA about 2 million years ago from the permafrost of Greenland, which is the oldest known DNA so far. Their analysis revealed that this desolate world of ice and snow was once densely wooded and inhabited by a variety of animals. The research report was published in the journal Nature. The researchers collected sediments in 2006 from permafrost up to 100 meters thick and about 2 million years old on the Piriti Peninsula in northern Greenland. Limited by technology at first, they failed to extract ancient DNA from it. Things have changed over the past few years. Technological advances have allowed researchers to extract more than 16 billion DNA fragments from these deposits, many of which belong to modern microbes. Analysis of these DNA fragments revealed that Mastodons, reindeer, hares and geese lived in Greenland 2 million years ago. In addition, there are not only mosses, shrubs, birches and other plants that can still be seen in the local area today, but also trees such as poplars and cedars that usually grow in lower latitudes today. The average temperature in Greenland was 11 to 19 degrees Celsius higher then than it is today, the researchers said.
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