• A 2-million-year-old ecosystem in Greenland uncovered by environmental DNA 

      Kjær, Kurt H.; Winther Pedersen, Mikkel; De Sanctis, Bianca; De Cahsan, Binia; Korneliussen, Thorfinn S.; Michelsen, Christian S.; Sand, Karina K.; Jelavić, Stanislav; Ruter, Anthony H.; Schmidt, Astrid M. A.; Kjeldsen, Kristian K.; Tesakov, Alexey S.; Snowball, Ian; Gosse, John C.; Alsos, Inger Greve; Wang, Yucheng; Dockter, Christoph; Rasmussen, Magnus; Jørgensen, Morten E.; Skadhauge, Birgitte; Prohaska, Ana; Kristensen, Jeppe Å.; Bjerager, Morten; Allentoft, Morten E.; Coissac, Eric; Rouillard, Alexandra; Simakova, Alexandra; Fernandez-Guerra, Antonio; Bowler, Chris; Macias-Fauria, Marc; Vinner, Lasse; Welch, John J.; Hidy, Alan J.; Sikora, Martin; Collins, Matthew J.; Durbin, Richard; Larsen, Nicolaj K.; Willerslev, Eske (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2022-12-07)
      Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene epochs 3.6 to 0.8 million years ago had climates resembling those forecasted under future warming. Palaeoclimatic records show strong polar amplification with mean annual temperatures of 11–19 °C above contemporary values. The biological communities inhabiting the Arctic during this time remain poorly known because fossils are rare. Here we report an ancient ...
    • Environmental genomics of Late Pleistocene black bears and giant short-faced bears 

      Pedersen, Mikkel W.; De Sanctis, Bianca; Saremi, Nedda F.; Sikora, Martin; Puckett, Emily E.; Gu, Zhenquan; Moon, Katherine L.; Kapp, Joshua D.; Vinner, Lasse; Vardanyan, Zaruhi; Ardelean, Ciprian F.; Arroyo-Cabrales, Joaquin; Cahill, James A.; Heintzman, Peter D.; Zazula, Grant D.; MacPhee, Ross D. E.; Shapiro, Beth; Durbin, Richard; Willerslev, Eske (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2021-04-19)
      Analysis of ancient environmental DNA (eDNA) has revolutionized our ability to describe biological communities in space and time,1, 2, 3 by allowing for parallel sequencing of DNA from all trophic levels.4, 5, 6, 7, 8 However, because environmental samples contain sparse and fragmented data from multiple individuals, and often contain closely related species,9 the field of ancient eDNA has so far ...
    • Late Quaternary dynamics of Arctic biota from ancient environmental genomics 

      Wang, Yucheng; Pedersen, Mikkel W.; Alsos, Inger Greve; De Sanctis, Bianca; Racimo, Fernando; Prohaska, Ana; Coissac, Eric; Owens, Hannah L.; Merkel, Marie Føreid; Fernandez-Guerra, Antonio; Rouillard, Alexandra; Lammers, Youri; Alberti, Adriana; Denoeud, France; Money, Daniel; Ruter, Anthony H.; McColl, Hugh; Larsen, Nicolaj K.; Cherezova, Anna A.; Edwards, Mary E.; Fedorov, Grigory B.; Haile, James; Orlando, Ludovic; Vinner, Lasse; Korneliussen, Thorfinn S.; Beilman, David W.; Bjørk, Anders A.; Cao, Jialu; Dockter, Christoph; Esdale, Julie; Gusarova, Galina; Kjeldsen, Kristian K.; Mangerud, Jan; Rasic, Jeffrey T.; Skadhauge, Birgitte; Svendsen, John Inge; Tikhonov, Alexei N.; Wincker, Patrick; Xing, Yingchun; Zhang, Yubin; Froese, Duane G.; Rahbek, Carsten; Nogues, David B; Holden, Philip B.; Edwards, Neil R.; Durbin, Richard; Meltzer, David J.; Kjær, Kurt H.; Moller, Per; Willerslev, Eske (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2021-10-20)
      During the last glacial–interglacial cycle, Arctic biotas experienced substantial climatic changes, yet the nature, extent and rate of their responses are not fully understood1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. Here we report a large-scale environmental DNA metagenomic study of ancient plant and mammal communities, analysing 535 permafrost and lake sediment samples from across the Arctic spanning the past 50,000 years. ...