A 2-million-year-old ecosystem in Greenland uncovered by environmental DNA
Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene epochs 3.6 to 0.8 million years ago(1) had climates resembling those forecasted under future warming(2). Palaeoclimatic records show strong polar amplification with mean annual temperatures of 11–19 °C above contemporary values(3,4). The biological communities inh...
Published in: | Nature |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Text |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2022
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9729109/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36477129 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05453-y |
id |
ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:9729109 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:9729109 2023-05-15T14:58:33+02:00 A 2-million-year-old ecosystem in Greenland uncovered by environmental DNA 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 M. A. 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 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 2022-12-07 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9729109/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36477129 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05453-y en eng Nature Publishing Group UK http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9729109/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36477129 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05453-y © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . CC-BY Nature Article Text 2022 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05453-y 2022-12-11T02:13:24Z Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene epochs 3.6 to 0.8 million years ago(1) had climates resembling those forecasted under future warming(2). Palaeoclimatic records show strong polar amplification with mean annual temperatures of 11–19 °C above contemporary values(3,4). The biological communities inhabiting the Arctic during this time remain poorly known because fossils are rare(5). Here we report an ancient environmental DNA(6) (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 relatives. The presence of marine species including horseshoe crab and green algae support a warmer climate than today. The reconstructed ecosystem has no modern analogue. The survival of such ancient eDNA probably relates to its binding to mineral surfaces. Our findings open new areas of genetic research, demonstrating that it is possible to track the ecology and evolution of biological communities from two million years ago using ancient eDNA. Text Arctic Greenland Kap København North Greenland PubMed Central (PMC) Arctic Greenland Kap ENVELOPE(23.567,23.567,65.533,65.533) Kap København ENVELOPE(-22.200,-22.200,82.400,82.400) Nature 612 7939 283 291 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
PubMed Central (PMC) |
op_collection_id |
ftpubmed |
language |
English |
topic |
Article |
spellingShingle |
Article 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 M. A. 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 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 A 2-million-year-old ecosystem in Greenland uncovered by environmental DNA |
topic_facet |
Article |
description |
Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene epochs 3.6 to 0.8 million years ago(1) had climates resembling those forecasted under future warming(2). Palaeoclimatic records show strong polar amplification with mean annual temperatures of 11–19 °C above contemporary values(3,4). The biological communities inhabiting the Arctic during this time remain poorly known because fossils are rare(5). Here we report an ancient environmental DNA(6) (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 relatives. The presence of marine species including horseshoe crab and green algae support a warmer climate than today. The reconstructed ecosystem has no modern analogue. The survival of such ancient eDNA probably relates to its binding to mineral surfaces. Our findings open new areas of genetic research, demonstrating that it is possible to track the ecology and evolution of biological communities from two million years ago using ancient eDNA. |
format |
Text |
author |
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 M. A. 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 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 |
author_facet |
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 M. A. 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 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 |
author_sort |
Kjær, Kurt H. |
title |
A 2-million-year-old ecosystem in Greenland uncovered by environmental DNA |
title_short |
A 2-million-year-old ecosystem in Greenland uncovered by environmental DNA |
title_full |
A 2-million-year-old ecosystem in Greenland uncovered by environmental DNA |
title_fullStr |
A 2-million-year-old ecosystem in Greenland uncovered by environmental DNA |
title_full_unstemmed |
A 2-million-year-old ecosystem in Greenland uncovered by environmental DNA |
title_sort |
2-million-year-old ecosystem in greenland uncovered by environmental dna |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group UK |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9729109/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36477129 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05453-y |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(23.567,23.567,65.533,65.533) ENVELOPE(-22.200,-22.200,82.400,82.400) |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland Kap Kap København |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland Kap Kap København |
genre |
Arctic Greenland Kap København North Greenland |
genre_facet |
Arctic Greenland Kap København North Greenland |
op_source |
Nature |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9729109/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36477129 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05453-y |
op_rights |
© The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05453-y |
container_title |
Nature |
container_volume |
612 |
container_issue |
7939 |
container_start_page |
283 |
op_container_end_page |
291 |
_version_ |
1766330686994644992 |