EventResearchers Hendrik Poinar and Gerry Wright recovered ancient DNA from an Arctic ground‑squirrel droppings in the Klondike goldfields, Yukon. The sample preserves genetic material of plants, parasites and megafauna spanning 14,000–700,000 years ago, but thawing permafrost is rapidly erasing this unique archive.
Researchers in the Klondike goldfields recovered ancient DNA from an Arctic ground‑squirrel droppings that preserved genetic material of plants, parasites and megafauna spanning 14 000 to 700 000 years ago—showing how thawing permafrost is erasing a unique archive of Earth’s past ecosystems.
Arctic permafrost melt is erasing fossil records that span hundreds of thousands of years, threatening our understanding of ancient ecosystems and heightening climate instability.
A team of scientists published in Nature Communications that DNA from Arctic ground squirrel droppings preserved in Klondike permafrost can be recovered but will soon degrade as the ice thaws, underscoring how melting permafrost threatens ancient biological archives.
