A 2-million-year-old ecosystem in Greenland uncovered by environmental DNA. ...

• Main Authors: Kjær, Kurt H, Winther Pedersen, Mikkel, De Sanctis, Bianca, De Cahsan, Binia, Korneliussen, Thorfinn S, Michelsen, Christian S, Sand, Karina K, Jelavić, Stanislav, Ruter, Anthony H, Schmidt, Astrid MA, Kjeldsen, Kristian K, Tesakov, Alexey S, Snowball, Ian, Gosse, John C, Alsos, Inger G, Wang, Yucheng, Dockter, Christoph, Rasmussen, Magnus, Jørgensen, Morten E, Skadhauge, Birgitte, Prohaska, Ana, Kristensen, Jeppe Å, Bjerager, Morten, Allentoft, Morten E, Coissac, Eric, PhyloNorway Consortium, Rouillard, Alexandra, Simakova, Alexandra, Fernandez-Guerra, Antonio, Bowler, Chris, Macias-Fauria, Marc, Vinner, Lasse, Welch, John J, Hidy, Alan J, Sikora, Martin, Collins, Matthew J, Durbin, Richard, Larsen, Nicolaj K, Willerslev, Eske
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2022
• Subjects: DNA, Environmental; Ecosystem; Ecology; FOS Biological sciences; Fossils; Greenland; Arctic; Kap; Kap København; North Greenland
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.92544; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/345115

Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene epochs 3.6 to 0.8 million years ago1 had climates resembling those forecasted under future warming2. Palaeoclimatic records show strong polar amplification with mean annual temperatures of 11-19 °C above contemporary values3,4. The biological communities inhabiting the Arctic during this time remain poorly known because fossils are rare5. Here we report an ancient environmental DNA6 (eDNA) record describing the rich plant and animal assemblages of the Kap København Formation in North Greenland, dated to around two million years ago. The record shows an open boreal forest ecosystem with mixed vegetation of poplar, birch and thuja trees, as well as a variety of Arctic and boreal shrubs and herbs, many of which had not previously been detected at the site from macrofossil and pollen records. The DNA record confirms the presence of hare and mitochondrial DNA from animals including mastodons, reindeer, rodents and geese, all ancestral to their present-day and late Pleistocene ...