Photo: Oldest Known DNA Found in Greenland Ice Core

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Boreal forests line the cliffs around a lake in Canada's Nahanni National Park in the Northwest Territories.

New research suggests that Greenland once supported a forest ecosystem similar to that of modern Canada's. The work is based on samples of the oldest known DNA: tree and animal DNA found in frozen mud dated back to between 450,000 and 800,000 years ago.

Photograph by Raymond Gehman/NGS

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