November
17
/ 2025
In a breakthrough that rewrites the boundaries of molecular archaeology, researchers have successfully extracted and sequenced RNA from a woolly mammoth that died nearly 40,000 years ago in Siberia. The discovery, published in the journal Cell, represents the oldest RNA ever recovered and offers an unprecedented molecular snapshot of life during the Ice Age. Scientists long believed that RNA molecules were far too fragile to survive more than hours or days after death, making this find all the more extraordinary. The mammoth, nicknamed Yuka after the Siberian village near where she was discovered, has become one of paleontology's most valuable specimens. Found in 2010 by tusk hunters along a riverbank near the Arctic coast, Yuka's mummified remains included patches of
