Researchers at Aalborg University in Denmark, including biologist Sophie Lund Rasmussen, have successfully extracted ancient DNA from a clay brick dating back nearly three millennia. The brick, made from mud from the Tigris River, contained plant DNA, offering insights into the vegetation of Mesopotamia at the time. Ms Rasmussen said: "We were amazed when it turned out that we were actually able to extract ancient DNA from this clay material." The team's work demonstrates that ancient DNA can be found in materials not typically considered to contain enough genetic substance to sequence.
(Summary provided by Infomedia) Sources: Scientific American, 01-12-2023