The DNA of a fossil bear has been recreated for the first time

Scientists have for the first time succeeded in reconstructing the genomes of two species of bears that lived in the Upper Paleolithic.

territory of northern Mexico. This was done using DNA that was extracted from cave sediments containing the feces of ancient animals.

The authors studied the contents of the Chiquihuite cave:They isolated so-called environmental DNA (eDNA) from cave sediments containing feces and traces of urine of ancient animals and, for the first time in the history of genomics, reconstructed the genomes of two Upper Paleolithic bears on its basis

Researchers have recovered DNA:

• American black bear Ursus americanus,
• giant short-faced bear Arctodus simus.

The authors believe that the results they obtained open a new era in paleogenomic research.

Now DNA taken from the environment can tell scientists much more than they could, right down to migration and evolution.

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