The Przewalski’s Horse, which lives on the steppes of central Asia, likely deviated from the lineage leading to modern domesticated horses some 50,000 years ago. (Photo: Joe Ravi)
Posted on 11/23/2013 12:58:13 PM PST by Dysart
The frozen remains of a horse more than half a million years old have reluctantly given up their genetic secrets, providing scientists with the oldest DNA ever sequenced.
The horse was discovered in 2003 in the ancient permafrost of Canada’s west-central Yukon Territory, not far from the Alaskan border.
And although the animal was dated to between 560,000 and 780,000 years old, an international team of researchers was able to use a new combination of techniques to decipher its genetic code.
Among the team’s findings is that the genus Equus — which includes all horses, donkeys, and zebras — dates back more than 4 million years, twice as long ago as scientists had previously believed.
“When we started the project, everyone — including us, to be honest — thought it was impossible,” said Dr. Ludovic Orlando of the University of Copenhagen, who coordinated the research, in a statement to Western Digs.
“And it was to some extent, with the methods available by then. So it’s clearly methodological advances that made this possible.”
Orlando and his colleagues published their findings this summer in the journal Nature; he discussed them today in a lecture at The Royal Society, London.
Previous to this, the oldest genome ever sequenced was of a 120,000-year-old polar bear — no small feat consider that the half-life of a DNA molecule is estimated to be about 521 years. By this reckoning, even under the best conditions, DNA could remain intact for no more than 6.8 million years...
The fact that the remains were frozen helped slow the rate of decay. But they also “targeted specific DNA preservation niches,” he said, like the protein called collagen found in the animal’s bones...
(Excerpt) Read more at westerndigs.org ...
The Przewalski’s Horse, which lives on the steppes of central Asia, likely deviated from the lineage leading to modern domesticated horses some 50,000 years ago. (Photo: Joe Ravi)
Wasn’t that during or just after an Ice age time? Where would it or it’s ancestors lived.. (no where to graze)?
Geez....can I get a Raptor? There’s a place at which I’d like to “set it free.”
That’s a Capitol idea!
I was just watching “Jurassic Park” on Encore. Just one or two of those raptors turned loose at certain venues in DC could solve a lot of our problems.
Ping for an old horse.
Wait I thought horses weren’t indigineous to the American continents and that they came over with the “invading European hordes”??? Or is this just a different “prehistoric” subspecies?
These were ancestors of modern horsies.
Wasn’t Dysart the name of Richard Burton’s character in Equus? Just wondering.
“Among the team’s findings is that the genus Equus — which includes all horses, donkeys, and zebras — dates back more than 4 million years, twice as long ago as scientists had previously believed.”
So estimating from the present genome about the past genome was widely erroneous? Interesting in its implications.
Was it a friendly horse? Would it communicate in morse?
Of course, of course.
That was news to me, but kudos for excellence in free association!
I wonder how much of this new “evidence” is speculation
Wouldn't the various ice ages since then with deep and repeated glaciation of the Yukon have completely destroyed any remains like this?
But that would mean that there have been no re-occurring ice ages, and the earth is not eighty eleven years old. The horseish thingie could not be that old. But if it was not that old, then the world could be double eighty elevensies.
Oh NOES! The cranium hurtish with all the fine scientwistic reasoning.
Something for Sarah Jessica Parker to look up on Ancestry.com.
It might be the missing link tying her to John Kerry.
yes and another spin, now choose a new category...
What’s with the Sarah Jessica Parker picture?
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