The oldest animal DNA ever recovered reveals mammoths’ evolution
A hybrid of woolly mammoths and a previously unknown species may have roamed North America
An ancient lineage of steppe mammoths (illustrated) led to woolly mammoths that roamed the Arctic. Million-year-old mammoth DNA suggests that another previously unknown lineage mixed with woolly mammoths and gave rise to the Columbian mammoths that spanned North America.
Beth Zaiken/Centre for Palaeogenetics