Frozen droppings from prehistoric ground squirrels are rich with DNA from Ice Age animals, including wooly mammothA mysterious big cat and a vast array of other creatures reveal a remarkably detailed genetic snapshot of ancient life in Canada’s rugged Yukon.
Although genetic material of the larger creatures was found in the feces of ground squirrels, these rodents were not carnivores. They were opportunistic omnivores that ate a variety of plant material and fungi, as well as insects, rodents, and meat, like Arctic ground squirrels (urochitelus parryi) today in the Yukon Territory and other parts of northwestern North America and Siberia.
But Arctic ground squirrels also have a habit of collecting and storing various items in their burrows, which could introduce additional DNA into the droppings over time, which could potentially explain some of the genetic signals found, the researchers warned. It’s also possible, he added, that the DNA of carnivores ended up in the burrows as they were trying to hunt squirrels.
“Arctic ground squirrels that are in the Yukon today act like pack rats,” study first author tyler murchiA paleogenomics researcher at the Hakai Institute in British Columbia, Canada, said in a statement. “So they’ll go out into the landscape, and they’ll collect a whole bunch of different pieces of plant material and bones, seeds, and they’ll bring it back to their burrows.”
So whether these ancient rodents were feasting on meat and other foods or simply bringing it into their homes, these droppings help reveal the flora and fauna that lived in Beringia, an ancient region that once covered northeastern Asia and northwestern North America when the continents were connected to each other. land bridge during last ice age. The findings were published Tuesday (June 9) in the journal nature communication.
The coprolites, or fossilized feces, in the study spanned several ice ages.
(Image credit: Government of Yukon)
poop detective
For the study, researchers analyzed samples extracted from fecal pellets that were preserved for millennia in burrows within the deep permafrost of the Yukon, which borders Alaska. These feces, the oldest of which date back about 700,000 years, have yielded an extraordinary treasure. ancient environmental dna From innumerable plants, microorganisms, fungi and animal species.
Notably, according to the authors, genetic material obtained from 700,000-year-old ground-squirrel droppings is among the oldest DNA ever recovered and sequenced.
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“The research shows us that ground squirrel coprolites, or droppings, preserve a remarkably diverse genetic snapshot of ancient Beringia, making them exceptional repositories for understanding evolutionary and ecological change through the deep past,” said the study’s co-author. Hendrik Poinarthe director of the Center for Ancient DNA at McMaster University in Ontario said in the statement.
“This helps reconstruct paleoenvironments in very deep time, providing insight into environmental change, megafaunal evolution, dispersal and eventual extinction,” Poinar said.
Ancient fecal particles left by Arctic ground squirrels were found in Lower Quartz Creek in the Yukon.
(Image credit: Duane Froese/University of Alberta)
During their investigation, the researchers extracted ancient environmental DNA from a collection of ground-squirrel coprolites. This led the team to the Woolly Mammoth (mammuthus primigenius), now extinct steppe bison (bison priscus), horses (Equus), snowshoe rabbit (lepus americanus) and the Arctic ground squirrel itself.
The mitochondrial genome, or mitogenome, is the complete set of DNA found inside mitochondria – tiny structures located within cells that produce energy. The mitogenome assembled from a 700,000-year-old sample represents the oldest mitogenome ever obtained from ancient feces, the study reports.
The team also detected weak genetic fingerprints of several other animals in the coprolites, including evidence of lemmings (lemmas), caribou (rangifer tarandus), gray wolves (canis lupis) and a big cat – possibly a cougar or extinct American Cheetah (Miracinonyx Trumani) – as well as more than 200 groups of fungi, bacteria, and plants.
According to the researchers, given the rich collection of genetic material uncovered, these findings could pave the way for future discoveries.
“The thing I hope people learn from this kind of work is the unexpected secrets you can find in remains that you might otherwise overlook,” Marchi said in a video statement.
Marchi, T.J., Cocker, S.L., Baleca, S., Vogel, N.A., Nattola, L., Karpinski, E., Tirley, D., Barrera, M.A., Grant, D.M., Morien, E., Long, G.S., Rutledge, L.Y., Zazula, G.D., Jensen, B.J., Froese, D.G., & Poinar, H.N. (2026). Ground squirrel coprolites preserve complex records of ancient environmental DNA dating back more than 700,000 years. nature communication. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-72977-6
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