Ancient Biomolecules from Deep Ice Cores Reveal a Forested Southern Greenland

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Willerslev, Eske, Cappellini, Enrico, Boomsma, Wouter, Nielsen, Rasmus, Hebsgaard, Martin B., Brand, Tina B., Hofreiter, Michael, Bunce, Michael, Poinar, Hendrik N., Dahl-Jensen, Dorthe, Johnsen, Sigfus, Steffensen, Jørgen Peder, Bennike, Ole, Schwenninger, Jean-Luc, Nathan, Roger, Armitage, Simon, de Hoog, Cees-Jan, Alfimov, Vasily, Christl, Marcus, Beer, Juerg, Muscheler, Raimund, Barker, Joel, Sharp, Martin, Penkman, Kirsty E.H., Haile, James, Taberlet, Pierre, Gilbert, M. Thomas P., Casoli, Antonella, Campani, Elisa, Collins, Matthew J.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2007
• Subjects: Article; Greenland
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2694912; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17615355; https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1141758

One of the major difficulties in paleontology is the acquisition of fossil data from the 10% of Earth’s terrestrial surface that is covered by thick glaciers and ice sheets. Here we reveal that DNA and amino acids from buried organisms can be recovered from the basal sections of deep ice cores and allow reconstructions of past flora and fauna. We show that high altitude southern Greenland, currently lying below more than two kilometers of ice, was once inhabited by a diverse array of conifer trees and insects that may date back more than 450 thousand years. The results provide the first 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.