Scientists map DNA of prehistoric animal

A team of scientists at Penn State University could be one step closer to bringing extinct species back to life. Using next-generation instruments and groundbreaking DNA-reading techniques, scientists have uncovered much of the genetic code of the woolly mammoth, a prehistoric species of elephant. Project scientists have detailed more than 3 billion DNA building blocks of the mammoth, according to a study published in Thursday's journal Nature.  The project relied on hairs found on two frozen mammoth mummies that were buried in the Siberian permafrost for 20,000 and 60,000 years. With mammoth hairs, scientists were able to avoid the bacterial and viral contamination they had encountered using bone tissue. The hair shaft encases the DNA like a biological plastic, making the genetic information less prone to environmental damage. Finding and isolating the DNA was one thing, but sequencing the genome had its own challenges, scientists said. "It's like a mirror that you smash on the floor. Then, like a jigsaw puzzle, you try to piece the DNA back together," Schuster said. After scientists pieced together the broken pieces of the ancient genome, their analysis began. The genetic map of the modern African elephant was used as a blueprint to compare and contrast the genetic markers of the woolly mammoth. The genetic data indicated that there were two distinct groups of woolly mammoths which separated about 2 million years ago. One of these sub-populations went extinct approximately 45,000 years ago, but the other lived until after the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago.

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