In:
Science, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Vol. 317, No. 5834 ( 2007-07-06), p. 111-114
Kurzfassung:
It is difficult to obtain fossil data from the 10% of Earth's terrestrial surface that is covered by thick glaciers and ice sheets, and hence, knowledge of the paleoenvironments of these regions has remained limited. We show that DNA and amino acids from buried organisms can be recovered from the basal sections of deep ice cores, enabling reconstructions of past flora and fauna. We show that high-altitude southern Greenland, currently lying below more than 2 kilometers of ice, was inhabited by a diverse array of conifer trees and insects within the past million years. The results provide direct evidence in support of a forested southern Greenland and suggest that many deep ice cores may contain genetic records of paleoenvironments in their basal sections.
Materialart:
Online-Ressource
ISSN:
0036-8075
,
1095-9203
DOI:
10.1126/science.1141758
Sprache:
Englisch
Verlag:
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Publikationsdatum:
2007
ZDB Id:
128410-1
ZDB Id:
2066996-3
ZDB Id:
2060783-0
SSG:
11