Scientists have collected ancient RNA from mammoth samples up to 52,000 years old. Learn how they can use that RNA to indicate what happened to the mammoth as it took its last breaths.

RNA from an exceptionally well preserved woolly mammoth gives us a window on gene activity in an animal that died nearly 40,000 years ago

A young woolly mammoth now known as Yuka was frozen in the Siberian permafrost for about 40,000 years before it was discovered by local tusk hunters in 2010. The hunters soon handed it over to scientists,...

RNA has been extracted from an ancient woolly mammoth, providing insight into its last moments on Earth

We didn't think this was possible.

Researchers from Stockholm University have – for the first time ever – managed to successfully isolate and sequence RNA molecules from Ice Age woolly mammoths. These RNA sequences are the oldest ever recovered and come from mammoth tissue preserved in the Siberian permafrost for nearly 40,000 years. The study, published in the journal Cell, shows that not only DNA and proteins, but also RNA, can be preserved for very long periods of time, and provide new insights into the biology of species that have long since become extinct.

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New research shows that woolly mammoths roamed farther east than scientists previously thought.

With its latest accomplishments, Colossal Biosciences expects to functionally restore the dodo within the next 5 to 7 years.