Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Originally published in Science Express on 17 April 2003
Science 2 May 2003:
Vol. 300. no. 5620, pp. 791 - 795
DOI: 10.1126/science.1084114
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Diverse Plant and Animal Genetic Records from Holocene and Pleistocene Sediments

Eske Willerslev,1* Anders J. Hansen,1*{dagger} Jonas Binladen,1 Tina B. Brand,1 M. Thomas P. Gilbert,2 Beth Shapiro,2 Michael Bunce,2 Carsten Wiuf,3 David A. Gilichinsky,4 Alan Cooper2

Genetic analyses of permafrost and temperate sediments reveal that plant and animal DNA may be preserved for long periods, even in the absence of obvious macrofossils. In Siberia, five permafrost cores ranging from 400,000 to 10,000 years old contained at least 19 different plant taxa, including the oldest authenticated ancient DNA sequences known, and megafaunal sequences including mammoth, bison, and horse. The genetic data record a number of dramatic changes in the taxonomic diversity and composition of Beringian vegetation and fauna. Temperate cave sediments in New Zealand also yielded DNA sequences of extinct biota, including two species of ratite moa, and 29 plant taxa characteristic of the prehuman environment. Therefore, many sedimentary deposits may contain unique, and widespread, genetic records of paleoenvironments.

1 Department of Evolutionary Biology, Zoological Institute, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, Denmark DK-2100 Ø.
2 Henry Wellcome Ancient Biomolecules Centre, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
3 Department of Statistics, University of Oxford, 1 South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3TG, UK.
4 Soil Cryology Laboratory, Institute for PhysicoChemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science, Russian Academy of Sciences, 142290, Pushchino, Moscow Region, Russia.



* These authors contributed equally to this work.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ajhansen{at}zi.ku.dk

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
DNA content and distribution in ancient feathers and potential to reconstruct the plumage of extinct avian taxa.
N. J. Rawlence, J. R. Wood, K. N. Armstrong, and A. Cooper (2009)
Proc R Soc B 276, 3395-3402
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Ecological consequences of Late Quaternary extinctions of megafauna.
C.N. Johnson (2009)
Proc R Soc B 276, 2509-2519
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Fast phylogenetic DNA barcoding.
K. Munch, W. Boomsma, E. Willerslev, and R. Nielsen (2008)
Phil Trans R Soc B 363, 3997-4002
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Species detection using environmental DNA from water samples.
G. F. Ficetola, C. Miaud, F. Pompanon, and P. Taberlet (2008)
Biol Lett 4, 423-425
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Bayesian Inference of Errors in Ancient DNA Caused by Postmortem Degradation.
L. M. Mateiu and B. H. Rannala (2008)
Mol. Biol. Evol. 25, 1503-1511
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Impacts of climate change on species, populations and communities: palaeobiogeographical insights and frontiers.
G.M. MacDonald, K.D. Bennett, S.T. Jackson, L. Parducci, F.A. Smith, J.P. Smol, and K.J. Willis (2008)
Progress in Physical Geography 32, 139-172
   Abstract »    PDF »
Quaternary science 2007: a 50-year retrospective.
M. Walker and J. Lowe (2007)
Journal of the Geological Society 164, 1073-1092
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Ancient Biomolecules from Deep Ice Cores Reveal a Forested Southern Greenland.
E. Willerslev, E. Cappellini, W. Boomsma, R. Nielsen, M. B. Hebsgaard, T. B. Brand, M. Hofreiter, M. Bunce, H. N. Poinar, D. Dahl-Jensen, et al. (2007)
Science 317, 111-114
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Ancient DNA Chronology within Sediment Deposits: Are Paleobiological Reconstructions Possible and Is DNA Leaching a Factor?.
J. Haile, R. Holdaway, K. Oliver, M. Bunce, M. T. P. Gilbert, R. Nielsen, K. Munch, S. Y. W. Ho, B. Shapiro, and E. Willerslev (2007)
Mol. Biol. Evol. 24, 982-989
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Does the 43 bp sequence from an 800 000 year old Cretan dwarf elephantid really rewrite the textbook on mammoths?.
L. Orlando, M. Pages, S. Calvignac, S. Hughes, and C. Hanni (2007)
Biol Lett 3, 58-60
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
It remains a mammoth DNA fragment. A reply to Binladen et al. (2006) and Orlando et al. (2006).
N. Poulakakis, A. Parmakelis, P. Lymberakis, M. Mylonas, E. Zouros, D. S Reese, S. Glaberman, and A. Caccone (2007)
Biol Lett 3, 61-64
   Full Text »    PDF »
Power and limitations of the chloroplast trnL (UAA) intron for plant DNA barcoding.
P. Taberlet, E. Coissac, F. Pompanon, L. Gielly, C. Miquel, A. Valentini, T. Vermat, G. Corthier, C. Brochmann, and E. Willerslev (2007)
Nucleic Acids Res. 35, e14
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Recharacterization of ancient DNA miscoding lesions: insights in the era of sequencing-by-synthesis.
M. T. P. Gilbert, J. Binladen, W. Miller, C. Wiuf, E. Willerslev, H. Poinar, J. E. Carlson, J. H. Leebens-Mack, and S. C. Schuster (2007)
Nucleic Acids Res. 35, 1-10
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Typing single polymorphic nucleotides in mitochondrial DNA as a way to access Middle Pleistocene DNA.
C. Valdiosera, N. Garcia, L. Dalen, C. Smith, R.-D. Kahlke, K. Liden, A. Angerbjorn, J. L. Arsuaga, and A. Gotherstrom (2006)
Biol Lett 2, 601-603
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
DNA from pollen: principles and potential.
K. D. Bennett and L. Parducci (2006)
The Holocene 16, 1031-1034
   Abstract »    PDF »
Carbon stable isotope composition of DNA isolated from an incipient paleosol.
A. H. Jahren, K. Kelm, B. Wendland, G. Petersen, and O. Seberg (2006)
Geology 34, 381-384
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Pelagic-Benthic Coupling and Diagenesis of Nucleic Acids in a Deep-Sea Continental Margin and an Open-Slope System of the Eastern Mediterranean.
A. Dell'Anno, C. Corinaldesi, S. Stavrakakis, V. Lykousis, and R. Danovaro (2005)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 71, 6070-6076
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
How many clones need to be sequenced from a single forensic or ancient DNA sample in order to determine a reliable consensus sequence?.
M. A. Bower, M. Spencer, S. Matsumura, R. E. R. Nisbet, and C. J. Howe (2005)
Nucleic Acids Res. 33, 2549-2556
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Beringian Paleoecology Inferred from Permafrost-Preserved Fungal DNA.
M. C. Lydolph, J. Jacobsen, P. Arctander, M. T. P. Gilbert, D. A. Gilichinsky, A. J. Hansen, E. Willerslev, and L. Lange (2005)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 71, 1012-1017
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Simultaneous Recovery of Extracellular and Intracellular DNA Suitable for Molecular Studies from Marine Sediments.
C. Corinaldesi, R. Danovaro, and A. Dell'Anno (2005)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 71, 46-50
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Taxonomic heterogeneity within the Planctomycetales as derived by DNA-DNA hybridization, description of Rhodopirellula baltica gen. nov., sp. nov., transfer of Pirellula marina to the genus Blastopirellula gen. nov. as Blastopirellula marina comb. nov. and emended description of the genus Pirellula.
H. Schlesner, C. Rensmann, B. J. Tindall, D. Gade, R. Rabus, S. Pfeiffer, and P. Hirsch (2004)
Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 54, 1567-1580
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Maternal and Paternal Lineages in Cross-Breeding Bovine Species. Has Wisent a Hybrid Origin?.
E. L. C. Verkaar, I. J. Nijman, M. Beeke, E. Hanekamp, and J. A. Lenstra (2004)
Mol. Biol. Evol. 21, 1165-1170
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Comparisons of Protocols for Decontamination of Environmental Ice Samples for Biological and Molecular Examinations.
S. O. Rogers, V. Theraisnathan, L. J. Ma, Y. Zhao, G. Zhang, S.-G. Shin, J. D. Castello, and W. T. Starmer (2004)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 70, 2540-2544
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Plant DNA: A new substrate for carbon stable isotope analysis and a potential paleoenvironmental indicator.
A. H. Jahren, G. Petersen, and O. Seberg (2004)
Geology 32, 241-244
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Response to Drancourt and Raoult.
M. T. P. Gilbert, J. Cuccui, W. White, N. Lynnerup, R. W. Titball, A. Cooper, and M. B. Prentice (2004)
Microbiology 150, 264-265
   Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)