Ancient DNA

Ancient DNA is genetic material recovered from archaeological and paleontological remains. Its degraded fragments reveal the ancestry, relationships, movement, and biology of past organisms.

DNA extraction: A laboratory process that isolates DNA from cells or other biological material. Ancient remains require extraction methods that recover tiny amounts of highly degraded genetic material.
Paleogenomics: The study of genomes from ancient organisms to reconstruct their biology and history. Ancient DNA is the material foundation for genome-scale studies of the past.
Allan Wilson: An American evolutionary biologist whose work helped establish molecular approaches to human evolution. Wilson's group produced some of the earliest influential studies of DNA from ancient remains.
DNA: A molecule that stores hereditary information in most living organisms. Ancient DNA is degraded DNA recovered from organisms that lived in the past.
DNA preservation: The survival of DNA molecules over time under environmental and burial conditions. Uneven preservation determines which sites, periods, and organisms can be studied genetically.
Polymerase chain reaction: A laboratory method that makes many copies of a selected DNA segment. Early ancient-DNA studies used amplification, but it also magnified contaminating DNA.
Population genetics: The study of genetic variation within and between populations. Ancient genomes let population geneticists observe ancestry and change directly through time.
Svante Pääbo: A Swedish geneticist known for pioneering the recovery and analysis of ancient DNA. His methods and research helped turn ancient-DNA analysis into a rigorous field.
Mitochondrial DNA: DNA in mitochondria, usually inherited through the maternal line in humans. Its many copies per cell can make it easier to recover from degraded remains.
Ancient environmental DNA: DNA from past organisms recovered from sediments, water, or other environmental samples. Sediments can preserve genetic traces where identifiable bones or teeth are absent.

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