The world’s oldest DNA study to date indicated that Greenland was previously covered in forests of poplar and birch trees, with its margins hosting warm coastal waters teeming with crabs and aquatic life.
According to the study, the ecosystem that was discovered through DNA analysis had ‘no contemporary comparable.’
The genetic material is at least two million years old, making it nearly twice as old as the oldest DNA previously found in Siberia.
The discovery, which provided an amazing view at an exceptional ancient ecosystem, was published in the Nature journal.
Together, they demonstrate that caribou and Arctic hares lived in an area only 600 miles from the North Pole. Whereas the warm coastal waters were filled with horseshoe crabs, a species that today cannot be found any farther north of Maine.
The study has been praised as a significant advancement by other experts.
Greenland currently receives almost no rainfall and supports very little life other from mosses, lichens, and the occasional Arctic hare or musk ox scuttling on the dry slopes, far from its formerly lush history.
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