DNA from Museum drawers

Scientists have recovered DNA from mammoth hair that had been stored in a drawer at room temperature for the 200 years since the 1799 discovery of a naturally mummified mammoth.

This discovery raises the prospect of sequencing DNA from the hair and feathers of other specimens from museum drawers.

We are still far from cloning extinct organisms from preserved DNA, and a Jurassic Park scenario is still science fiction, but these discoveries, while controversial, have established a new discipline, creating lab standards and research protocol for rigorous and repeatable results.

The information from fossil DNA helps to clarify the relationships between extinct animals and their living descendants.

Reference: Penn State University Webb Miller. Science, 317 (5846), 1927 (Sept. 28, 2007)

Photo credit: Stephan Schuster Lab, Penn State