Greenland looked very different. Scientists have reconstructed the ecosystem from 2 million years ago
2 million years ago, Greenland looked more like a forested, green land than the frigid, snow-covered island we know today. That was the discovery made by scientists based on an analysis of the oldest DNA in history.
Greenland is the largest island in the world that is not a continent and is mostly covered by an ice sheet. It has a polar climate, and the temperature in some parts never exceeds 0°C. Today Greenland is an extremely harsh place to live. Only the most hardy organisms can survive in the Arctic tundra. Not surprisingly, Greenland’s flora is very poor. There are no forests known from other parts of the world. Plants grow only in places where, at least for a short while a year, the snow recedes.
The oldest DNA in Earth’s history has been discovered
But the latest research shows that Greenland’s landscape once looked very different. A team of scientists from St John’s College, Cambridge University and the University of Copenhagen analyzed 41 DNA samples that were hidden in clay and quartz in the København Formation of the Peary Peninsula. Using cutting-edge technology, the researchers managed to extract fragmentary DNA a few millionths of a millimeter long.
