# Mammoth molars yield the oldest DNA ever sequenced
**URL:** https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/mammoth-molars-yield-the-oldest-dna-ever-sequenced/13908
**Category:** Conversation
**Tags:** Article, Science
**Created:** [June 27, 2021, 6:26pm UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/mammoth-molars-yield-the-oldest-dna-ever-sequenced/13908 "2021-06-27T18:26:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@swamidass](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/u/swamidass)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2021, 6:26pm UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/mammoth-molars-yield-the-oldest-dna-ever-sequenced/13908/1 "2021-06-27T18:26:36Z")
[https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/02/mammoth-molars-yield-oldest-dna-ever-sequenced](https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/02/mammoth-molars-yield-oldest-dna-ever-sequenced)
> A genetic analysis of long-extinct Siberian mammoths has nearly doubled the record for the oldest DNA yet sequenced. The genetic material, from a creature that roamed frozen lands some 1.2 million years ago, pushes the study of ancient DNA closer to its theoretical limit—and reveals a new lineage of mammoth.
>
> “I love this paper,” says Ludovic Orlando, a paleogeneticist at Paul Sabatier University whose team previously held the record for oldest DNA sequenced, [from a 750,000-year-old horse](https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2013/06/700000-year-old-horse-becomes-oldest-creature-sequenced-genome). “I have been waiting since 2013 [for] our world record for the oldest genome to be broken.”
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### Author:  [@Jordan](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/u/Jordan)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2021, 6:28pm UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/mammoth-molars-yield-the-oldest-dna-ever-sequenced/13908/2 "2021-06-27T18:28:13Z")
Wow! I would never have imagined that we could recover DNA that old. So cool!
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### Author:  [@Roy](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/u/Roy)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2021, 8:19pm UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/mammoth-molars-yield-the-oldest-dna-ever-sequenced/13908/3 "2021-06-27T20:19:56Z")
InGen were doing it decades ago…
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### Author:  [@John\_Harshman](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/u/John_Harshman)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2021, 8:37pm UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/mammoth-molars-yield-the-oldest-dna-ever-sequenced/13908/4 "2021-06-27T20:37:25Z")
> [@swamidass](#):
>
> A genetic analysis of long-extinct Siberian mammoths has nearly doubled the record for the oldest DNA yet sequenced.
…that anyone believes. There’s that Miocene plant, that Triassic halophile, and more than one supposed dinosaur DNA that thankfully never actually got published.
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### Author:  [@thoughtful](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/u/thoughtful)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2021, 1:44am UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/mammoth-molars-yield-the-oldest-dna-ever-sequenced/13908/5 "2021-06-28T01:44:36Z")
> [@John\_Harshman](#):
>
> that anyone believes.
What makes the science of it believable or not?
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### Author:  [@John\_Harshman](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/u/John_Harshman)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2021, 2:26am UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/mammoth-molars-yield-the-oldest-dna-ever-sequenced/13908/6 "2021-06-28T02:26:01Z")
> [@thoughtful](#):
>
> What makes the science of it believable or not?
Does it fit in with prior knowledge? Were the methods used sufficiently careful? Can the result be replicated? I recall a bit of claimed _Triceratops_ sequence, never published, that was identical to the sequence of a modern turkey. It seems more likely that the worker managed to sequence his lunch than that a real _Triceratops_ would match a modern bird.
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### Author:  [@Joe\_Felsenstein](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/u/Joe_Felsenstein)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2021, 3:00am UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/mammoth-molars-yield-the-oldest-dna-ever-sequenced/13908/8 "2021-06-28T03:00:09Z")
I think that the purported dinosaur DNA matched mammalian sequences more than it did living reptiles or birds. It was a case of sequencing one’s technician, or onesself.
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### Author:  [@John\_Harshman](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/u/John_Harshman)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2021, 3:36am UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/mammoth-molars-yield-the-oldest-dna-ever-sequenced/13908/9 "2021-06-28T03:36:16Z")
We may be thinking of different dinosaur DNAs. There have been at least two, maybe more.
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### Author:  [@Art](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/u/Art)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2021, 2:03pm UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/mammoth-molars-yield-the-oldest-dna-ever-sequenced/13908/10 "2021-06-28T14:03:51Z")
> [@Joe\_Felsenstein](#):
>
> I think that the purported dinosaur DNA matched mammalian sequences more than it did living reptiles or birds. It was a case of sequencing one’s technician, or onesself.
It wouldn’t surprise me if some trainees would be calling me an old dinosaur.
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### Author:  [@Mercer](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/u/Mercer)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2021, 3:24pm UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/mammoth-molars-yield-the-oldest-dna-ever-sequenced/13908/11 "2021-06-28T15:24:45Z")
> [@thoughtful](#):
>
> > [@John\_Harshman](#):
> >
> > that anyone believes.
>
> What makes the science of it believable or not?
Nested hierarchy. The extended data are available without a subscription:
[https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03224-9/figures/8](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03224-9/figures/8)
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### Author:  [@system](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2021, 3:25pm UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/mammoth-molars-yield-the-oldest-dna-ever-sequenced/13908/12 "2021-07-05T15:25:38Z")
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