The Impact of Ancient DNA Discovered in Siberia Essays

The Impact of Ancient DNA Discovered in Siberia For many decades, there has been an overwhelming curiosity about what life was like before humans ruled the earth - back when life on land, off land, and even the very land itself was very different than it is today. Pieces of this puzzle have been discovered all over the world, ranging from perfectly preserved skeletons at the bottom of bodies of water to fragments discovered in vast deserts. Due to the conditions of the ancient finds, there is only so much that can be deciphered about the past, which leads to the creations of various theories of what life was like in different areas and why and when it changed. However, in at least one stretch of land, there is a lot†¦show more content†¦Oddly as it may sound, the origins of these ancient and well preserved samples originated from frozen fecal matter from ancient plant eating animals, such as mammoths (Thomas 2003). The samples themselves consisted of frozen soil, fine rootlets, seeds, and other extremely small and as of yet unidentifiable multi-cellular fragments (Willerslev 2003). All in all, there were 28 families of trees, shrubs, herbs, and mosses within the samples, along with various forms of animal DNA, which provides the reason to believe that these samples came from the fecal remains of various animals (Thomas 2003). In fact, scientists determined the animal DNA belonged to eight different prehistoric and now extinct animals: the woolly mammoth, steppe bison, brown lemming, an unidentified relative to the musk ox as well as the musk ox, and ancient relatives of the horse, reindeer, and hare (Willerslev 2003). To the unlearned person, this research may not seem like anything outstanding, but the scholar and the enthusiast understand the ramifications of such a find. Scientists now have actual DNA from organisms that lived up to 400,000 years ago – during a time when even the positioning of the continents was different. This has the potential to put to rest the many debates over what the layout of the land looked like, what kinds of animals survived there, and when and why it all changed. For example, one of the arguments given wasShow MoreRelatedThe Origins Of Our Cities1726 Words   |  7 Pagesrelationship in the development of these cities. The first cities were developed and formed near bodies of water and fertile areas of the region. For example, I wanted to do some research on the Sumerian civilization around the fertile crescent and how the ancient Sumerian deities, the Anunnaki, played a part in influencing their way of life and their formation of their cities/communit ies. 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