Oldest DNA Ever Found Reveals Secrets of the Ancient Arctic

Scientists have retrieved the oldest DNA ever, which points to an ecosystem unlike anything on Earth today.

PRODUCTION CREDITS:
Digital Producer: Emily Zendt
Production Assistance: Abe Musselman, Shyla Duff
Additional footage provided for NOVA by HHMI Tangled Bank Studios and Handful of Films
Music: APM
© WGBH Educational Foundation 2022

Follow on social for more NOVA content!

[justinbarion]

Imagine this soil technique applied to caves where our distant ancestors lived 30, 000 years ago!

[desmeisme]

See, these are some of the people who make humanity extremely impressive, scientists wow me

[JonnoPlays]

Am I the only one who thought it was going to be pre-human DNA?

[clintwestwood]

I had a little bit of trouble hearing the scientists voice as he was explaining the electric charge of DNA because the background music was too high.

[TAPATIOPLEASE]

Not surprising only further adds to plate tectonics, where there was ice used to be tropics

[sgtmarty]

Background MUSIC IS TOO LOUD! Why do content makers continually do this?

[konodioda]

DNA from 2 million years ago is so crazy I always thought it would be impossible

[CharlieEarthRoast]

I love how science fiction always informs actual science. Like our smartphones, tablets, and video calling. Anyone remember old Star Trek and the Jetsons? Now Jurassic Park is in the mix of SciFi that was used as inspiration.

[Storm]

I think there is something going on with our planet. Where lakes n rivers are drying up they find ancient writing on the cave walls meaning water wasn’t always there. Now they find DNA that shows a warmer climate in what today is frozen over. Pretty amazing how our planet does this shift.

[fortysomethingbadgirls]

This is fascinating. Thank you for sharing.

[RedFlyRuledByTheRiff]

I’m glad he mentioned this because I had thought dna could not be recovered past a million years. Add one more!

[mytwocents]

Wow! We just keep learning more and more about the past and it is fascinating. History goes back so much longer than the short time humans have been here on this planet.

[billwhite]

DNA fluids traveled down to those layers mostly with rain water. They really do not know how old DNA is or how it got there.

[twan]

Wrote a poem about this video. I'll call it..
"Frozen polar desert"

Within the soil
lies a genome
binded to minerals
polymers find a-home

40 million years
And only now we start
Proud of this time, we say
" We're state of the art!"

Trying to understand
an ancient ecosystem
Compare libraries for clues
Just in case we missed 'em

A frozen polar desert
we now call Greenway
to understand the lineage
How we got here today.

[patriciasecrist]

Awesome! Love the information you provide! Thanks!

[chrisbentleywalkingandrambling]

If it was tropical water in this time, then was the Earth's axis possibly at a different angle? Just a thought.

[fd]

I bet there's something even older deep in the Artic.

[ladydeerheart]

That's amazing!!! Good job and thank you for your hard work. Also... thank you for the video. Knowledge Rocks!

[lavinleitrim]

Ill give folk an idea of this DNA extraction process, it takes over 30 steps to get it out of whatever it is your taking it out of. I had a lecturer in college who was in the process of inventing a new extraction method and our class was the 2nd to be the guinea pigs to see if it worked. It was very difficult and the precision was a nightmare, you mess up one step and you have to start over. We did fairly well considering it was all experimental. We did it twice, once was identifying species from poop, and the second was identifying what had been in some clay pots, ie plant or animal oil.

[marylousherman]

Wait... I'm not one to be skeptical of science but why is one man digging in the soil with his hands, not wearing a hazmat suit but the other two people there with him are suited up?