A South Africa cave find suggests ancient DNA can survive heat far longer than expected
Researchers have recovered 50,000-year-old DNA from a mountain reedbuck tooth in a South African cave, the oldest ever found in sub-Saharan Africa. This discovery challenges previous assumptions that heat prevents long-term DNA preservation in the region.
Why it matters
This breakthrough could significantly expand the timeline for studying human and animal evolution in Africa, overcoming a major barrier in paleogenomics.
The finding suggested that in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, genetic samples could stay preserved for far longer than scientists once believed.
According to Live Science , researchers dated DNA from a mountain reedbuck tooth to roughly 50,000 years ago, making it the oldest DNA yet recovered from sub-Saharan Africa.
That discovery was remarkable because heat normally destroys ancient DNA relatively fast.
Go deeper with Yahoo Scout How do heat and climate affect DNA preservation differently? Which other African sites might yield ancient DNA samples? How could this discovery change understanding of human evolution? Live Science noted that, before this finding, the oldest human DNA retrieved in sub-Saharan Africa was about 18,000 years old and the oldest animal DNA was around 9,300 years old.
In the study, published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews on May 27, researchers screened more than 300 animal teeth from a range spanning about 110,000 years.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in