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Science 6 July 2007:
Vol. 317. no. 5834, pp. 111 - 114
DOI: 10.1126/science.1141758
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Reports

Ancient Biomolecules from Deep Ice Cores Reveal a Forested Southern Greenland

Eske Willerslev,1* Enrico Cappellini,2 Wouter Boomsma,3 Rasmus Nielsen,4 Martin B. Hebsgaard,1 Tina B. Brand,1 Michael Hofreiter,5 Michael Bunce,6,7 Hendrik N. Poinar,7 Dorthe Dahl-Jensen,8 Sigfus Johnsen,8 Jørgen Peder Steffensen,8 Ole Bennike,9 Jean-Luc Schwenninger,10 Roger Nathan,10 Simon Armitage,11 Cees-Jan de Hoog,12 Vasily Alfimov,13 Marcus Christl,13 Juerg Beer,14 Raimund Muscheler,15 Joel Barker,16 Martin Sharp,16 Kirsty E. H. Penkman,2 James Haile,17 Pierre Taberlet,18 M. Thomas P. Gilbert,1 Antonella Casoli,19 Elisa Campani,19 Matthew J. Collins2

It is difficult to obtain fossil data from the 10% of Earth's terrestrial surface that is covered by thick glaciers and ice sheets, and hence, knowledge of the paleoenvironments of these regions has remained limited. We show that DNA and amino acids from buried organisms can be recovered from the basal sections of deep ice cores, enabling reconstructions of past flora and fauna. We show that high-altitude southern Greenland, currently lying below more than 2 kilometers of ice, was inhabited by a diverse array of conifer trees and insects within the past million years. The results provide direct evidence in support of a forested southern Greenland and suggest that many deep ice cores may contain genetic records of paleoenvironments in their basal sections.

1 Centre for Ancient Genetics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
2 BioArch, Departments of Biology and Archaeology, University of York, UK.
3 Bioinformatics Centre, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
4 Centre for Comparative Genomics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
5 Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany.
6 Murdoch University Ancient DNA Research Laboratory, Murdoch University, Australia.
7 McMaster Ancient DNA Center, McMaster University, Canada.
8 Ice and Climate, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
9 Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Denmark.
10 Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, UK.
11 Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK.
12 Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, UK.
13 Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI)/Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Laboratory for Ion Beam Physics, Institute for Particle Physics, ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
14 Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG), Switzerland.
15 GeoBiosphere Science Center, Lund University, Sweden.
16 Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Canada.
17 Ancient Biomolecules Centre, Oxford University, UK.
18 Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine, CNRS Unité Mixte de Recherche 5553, Université Joseph Fourier, Boîte Postale 53, 38041 Grenoble Cedex 9, France.
19 Dipartimento di Chimica Generale e Inorganica, Università di Parma, Italy.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ewillerslev{at}bi.ku.dk

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