A collaborative study uncovered preserved ancient chromosome structures in a 52,000-year-old woolly mammoth, providing unprecedented insights into its genetics and the conditions that allowed such preservation, drawing parallels with freeze-dried food techniques.
A breakthrough now makes it possible to assemble the genomes of extinct species.
A team of scientists from Baylor College of Medicine, the University of Copenhagen, and the Centre Nacional d’Anàlisi Genòmica and Centre for Genomic Regulation have discovered fossils of ancient chromosomes in the remains of a woolly mammoth that died 52,000 years ago. These fossils preserve the structure of the ancient chromosomes at a nanometer scale – billionths of a meter. The discovery is featured on the cover of Cell.
“We’ve known that tiny fragments of ancient DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.06.002
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/d1/82/d18228f6-d319-4525-bb18-78b829f0791f/mammalevolution_web.jpg "How to Make a Mammal in Nine Evolutionary Steps")
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