Teeth from mammoths buried in the Siberian permafrost for more than a million years have yielded the oldest DNA ever sequenced, according to a study published on Wednesday, shining a genetic spotlight into the deep past…

The genomes far exceed the oldest previously sequenced DNA – a horse dating to between 780,000 and 560,000 years ago…

Using a genome from an African elephant, a modern relative of the mammoth, as a blueprint for their algorithm, researchers were able to reconstruct parts of the mammoth genomes…

They found gene variants associated with life in the Arctic, like hairiness, thermoregulation, fat deposits and cold tolerance in the older specimen, suggesting mammoths were already hairy long before the woolly mammoth emerged…

As previously noted, this may, sooner or later, result in techniques which lead to reintroduction of a modern-day distant cousin of the Woolly Mammoth to the Arctic. Like most geeks (I’d bet), I’d be looking forward to such an event. Questions? Difficulties – scientific and ethical? You betcha. Comment if you feel one way or another.