Overview
- Scientists sequenced the first complete Ice Age animal genome recovered from another animal’s stomach, using tissue from a permafrost-preserved wolf found near Tumat in northeastern Siberia.
- Radiocarbon dating places the consumed woolly rhinoceros at about 14,400 years ago, shortly before the species disappeared from the region.
- Genome comparisons with specimens about 18,500 and 48,500 years old reveal no increase in deleterious mutations or evidence of inbreeding.
- The authors infer a rapid population collapse during the Bølling–Allerød warming rather than a long, human-driven decline in northeast Siberia.
- Unusual preservation—death soon after feeding followed by rapid freezing—enabled high-quality sequencing reported in Genome Biology and Evolution.