Secrets of Dung: Ancient poop yields nuclear DNA
By Sid Perkins
Researchers have extracted remnants of DNA from an unlikely source: the desiccated dung of an extinct ground sloth that lived in Nevada at the height of the last ice age. The feat is the first recovery of genetic material from cell nuclei of fossils that haven’t been sheathed in permafrost. It suggests that scientists may be overlooking caches of fossil DNA preserved in warm arid environments.
Earlier work on fossils had isolated DNA carried in mitochondria, the powerhouses of living cells. However, the DNA in a cell’s nucleus is typically longer and therefore holds much more genetic information about the species and individual from which the cell derived, says Gregory McDonald, a paleontologist with the National Park Service in Denver.