Ice sheets cover Greenland, the world’s largest non-continental island, throughout the year. However, the environment was not like this in the past. The Danish researchers recently claimed that the temperature was between 11 and 17 degrees Celsius, there, two million years ago. They have collected DNAs of animals (and also plants and microbes), which used to roam in Greenland during that period of time.

As mentioned in an article recently published in earth.com, the Danish researchers found the DNAs from sediment collected in Greenland. They believe that the island nation (situated in North America, and is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago) was once full of animals and plants. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen confirmed on December 7, 2022 that they identified DNAs of a variety of animals (like mastodons, reindeers and rabbits), and plants (poplar, birch, various bacteria and algae). As DNA is a self-replicating material that carries the genetic information of living organisms, it is often called the blueprint of life.

Mastodons were basically a proboscidean, belonging to the extinct genus Mammut (or Mammoth), which inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of the Pleistocene, 10,000-11,000 years ago. They used to live in herds and were predominantly forest-dwelling animals. Mastodons, the extinct relatives of elephants, generally had a browsing diet, distinct from that of the contemporary Columbian mammoth, which tended towards grazing. Professor Eske Willerslev, the Director of the Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre at the University of Copenhagen, has stated that the discovery of mastodon DNA is a great surprise, as no one found the mastodon DNA in Greenland in the past.

Professor Willerslev, the Lead Researcher, stressed: “No one would have predicted this ecosystem in northern Greenland at this time.” He claimed that the environment had created unique forested ecosystems for species, which used to live in both cool and temperate atmospheres. The palaeo-geneticist added: “These organisms had an ability to adapt in composition and in range that we do not understand and we cannot predict. Reindeers, according to palaeontologists, should not have survived; they should not even exist at that time.” “As a result of Global Warming, that is exactly what we are going to see in Greenland in the next few years,” insisted Professor Willerslev.

The Danish researchers have identified DNAs of nearly of 100 species of animals and plants from 41 types of mineral-rich sediments. Although the samples were collected in Greenland in 2006, no DNA has been identified from those in the last 16 years. The modern and advanced DNA detection methods have helped researchers identify DNAs of animals, plants and microbes, dating back two million years, from those samples. According to Professor Willerslev, extinct species cannot be brought back by using the identified DNAs. However, their research would certainly provide information about how future ecosystems would respond to Climate Change or Global Warming.

Earlier, the oldest DNA of a mammoth (another animal of the elephant family), dating back 1.2 million years, was identified in Greenland. The carcass of the animal survived in the icy conditions of Greenland. It may be noted that Human Beings, or the Homo Sapiens Sapiens, had evolved 0.3 million years earlier than the mammoth.

Boundless Ocean of Politics on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/boundlessoceanofpolitics/

Boundless Ocean of Politics on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/kousdas?s=09

Boundless Ocean of Politics on Linkedin:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/boundless-ocean-of-politics

Contact: kousdas@gmail.com

Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das