Discovery of ancient DNA from antelope fossils in South Africa opens a new window on the past

Over the past 50,000 years, many of the world’s large mammals have gone extinct.

Until recent decades, all we knew about them came from fossils.

Now, analysis of ancient DNA is adding to the picture.

Ancient DNA is damaged and degraded genetic material often obtained from fossils thousands of years old.

It’s giving scientists insights into hidden species diversity and the way populations expanded and contracted, based on changes in genetic diversity across time.

These ancient DNA studies have in large part been carried out in cold regions at northern latitudes, where low temperatures and permafrost mean DNA is better preserved – think woolly mammoths .

Across Africa, climates are warmer and DNA preservation in fossil remains is generally much poorer.

As a result, there have been few ancient DNA studies of African large mammals, and the few that have been done were focused mainly on humans and domestic species within the past 2,000 years or so.

Ancient DNA allows us to study extinct species and their genetic relationships to living species, and to measure the genetic diversity of past populations.

It can tell us something about how species respond to changes in their environment and reveal details about the mechanisms of evolution, population loss or species extinction.

As researchers with expertise in African hoofed mammals and in ancient DNA, we set out with collaborators to investigate how long ancient DNA is preserved in mammal fossils from archaeological sites in South Africa.

Our goal was to test the possibility of obtaining ancient DNA from multiple individuals of the same species that lived at different times in the past.

This would allow us to compare patterns of genetic diversity within a species through time, to understand the impact of past environmental changes.

We tested 144 fossils aged 1,500 to 110,000 years old, and found that DNA can be preserved for up to 50,000 years, although most of the fossils with preserved ancient DNA were younger than 11,700 years old.