Abstract
Archaeological sites offer clues to our past. Often the clues come in the form of skeletal remains, fossils, or pottery sherds. But they also come in the form of molecules. In particular, biological molecules like DNA recovered from ancient sites can reveal much about the people who lived there and the plants and animals they raised and ate. Over the past couple of decades, sequencing ancient DNA has become a popular approach for recovering information about ancestral humans and other animals. After all, DNA serves as a blueprint for what makes us, well, us. So it is especially good for species identification. But there are limits to the information that DNA can provide. For one thing, in archaeological terms, it doesn’t survive all that long. The most ancient DNA that has been analyzed so far was from a horse and was about 560,000–780,000 years old (Nature 2013, DOI: 10.1038/nature12323). In
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
