Woolly Rhino DNA Recovered From Fossilized Hyena Poop
Fossilized feces from the Pleistocene epoch have divulged the mitochondrial DNA of a woolly rhinoceros, whose genome had never previously been assembled. The ancient poop was not excreted by an ancient rhino but by a hyena—an animal that evidently ate the massive herbivore before it, too, died sometime in the Middle Paleolithic.
The team inspected two coprolites from different caves in Germany, and one hyena coprolite excavated in the 1930s. The samples yielded hyena and rhino DNA—enough of the latter to assemble a genome, despite degradation. The team’s research was published last week in The Royal Society journal Biology Letters.
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“Our results come from only one near-complete mitogenome and another very fragmented one, thus they are only a first glimpse, and more data is needed for solid conclusions,” Seeber said. “But it shows that we will be able to trace the history of the species using a wide range of samples and not only using classical bone finds.”
So move over, boring bone DNA. Fossilized fecal matter contains its own treasures, thanks to modern ways of extricating it.
More: Fossilized Human Poop Shows Ancient Forager Ate an Entire Rattlesnake—Fang Included
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