Kap København Formation · North Greenland

Ancient Greenland DNA

A source-traceable index of DNA, pollen, and macrofossil evidence used to reconstruct a roughly two-million-year-old ecosystem.

Study
Kjær et al., 2022
Location
82°24′N, 22°12′W
Release
Starter index · 10 records
Scope
Educational prototype

What the study reported

Environmental DNA preserved in sediment revealed evidence of an open boreal forest and coastal ecosystem where polar desert exists today. The combined community has no known modern analogue.

Interpretation boundary: detection supports presence. It does not measure abundance, prove genetic adaptation to warming, or identify a modern species when the source reports only a family or genus.

Samples41organic-rich sediment samples
Plant signal102genera detected by DNA
Cross-evidence76%of genus/family taxa also found by pollen or macrofossils in the same units
CommunityNo singleknown modern analogue

Evidence index / starter release

Reported taxa

Choose a row to inspect its claim, evidence methods, uncertainty, and exact source pointer.

Evidence method
DNA Pollen Macrofossil
0 of 0 records shown

Method notes

Three evidence windows

Agreement can strengthen a reconstruction. Differences often reflect preservation, transport, or taxonomic resolution—not necessarily error.

01Ancient DNA

Genetic fragments bound to sediment minerals. Often local, but constrained by preservation and available modern reference genomes.

02Pollen & spores

Durable grains that describe regional vegetation, though transport distance and uneven production can complicate interpretation.

03Macrofossils

Visible remains such as seeds, leaves, and twigs. Strong local evidence, but uncommon material may not be preserved or recovered.

Open data

Data and provenance

This is a ten-record teaching index, not the complete study supplement. Each record separates the reported claim from this project’s plain-language summary.

01

Dataset

Ten traceable records with evidence methods, uncertainty notes, and source pointers.

Download starter CSV
02

Documentation

Field definitions, curation boundaries, license notes, and known limitations.

Read data dictionary
03

Primary sources

Peer-reviewed article, archived sequence data, and the researchers’ analysis code.

Open original study