World’s Oldest Genome Sequenced From 700,000-Year-Old Horse DNA

DNA shines a light back into the past, showing us things that fossils can’t. But how far back can that light extend?

Some of the oldest DNA sequences come from mastodon and polar bear fossils about 50,000 and 110,000 years old, respectively. But a new study published online today in the journal Nature reports the latest in the push for recovering ever more ancient DNA sequences. Samples from a horse leg bone more than 700,000 years old have yielded the oldest full genome known to date.

Read the full story at National Geographic.