Ancient Greenland DNA Download data

Kap København · North Greenland · ~2 million years ago

A forest,
hidden in fragments.

Ancient DNA preserved in frozen sediment revealed a lost ecosystem unlike any alive today. Follow each claim back to the evidence.

Reconstructing a Two-Million-Year-Old Ecosystem

Explore the evidence How was it found?
82°24′N
22°12′W
TODAY
POLAR DESERT
FROZEN SEDIMENT
ORGANIC LAYER
ESTUARY DEPOSIT
~2.0 MYA

Each glowing trace represents biological material preserved in sediment.

41sediment samples
102plant genera detected by DNA
76%of genus/family taxa also found in macrofossil/pollen evidence from the same units
No singleknown modern community analogue
01 The discovery

The Arctic was not always white.

Where a polar desert sits today, an open boreal forest once met a warm coastal estuary.

Researchers extracted environmental DNA—genetic material organisms leave behind—from mineral-rich sediment. The fragments pointed to poplar, birch, cedar relatives, mastodon, reindeer, hare, geese, and marine life.

What this does not prove Finding DNA shows an organism was present. It does not, by itself, reveal a warming-adaptation gene or prove how abundant that organism was.

02 Evidence explorer

Read the record.

Select a trace to see what was reported, which method supports it, and what remains uncertain.

0 organisms in the starter evidence set

03 How to read the evidence

Three windows
into one world.

Each method preserves a different view. Agreement strengthens a reconstruction; disagreement can reveal blind spots rather than mistakes.

01

Ancient DNA

Tiny genetic fragments bound to minerals. Often local, but limited by preservation and modern reference databases.

02

Pollen & spores

Durable grains that can travel long distances. Useful for regional vegetation, but some plants produce much more than others.

03

Macrofossils

Visible remains such as seeds, leaves, and twigs. Strong local evidence, though rare material is easy to miss.

Open data · starter release

Don’t just trust the story.
Inspect the table.

This MVP includes a small, source-traceable teaching dataset—not the complete study supplement. Every row identifies what is reported, the evidence type, and where to verify it.

Download starter CSV Read the data dictionary