(Love Dalén via SWNS) By Talker

By Stephen Beech

DNA dating back over one million years has been identified in the woolly mammoth remains .

Scientists who discovered some of the world's oldest microbial DNA also identified for the first time bacteria that may have caused disease in the now extinct tusked mammals.

An international team, led by researchers from the Centre for Palaeogenetics in Sweden, analyzed microbial DNA from 483 mammoth specimens, of which 440 were sequenced for the first time.

Among them was a steppe mammoth that lived about 1.1 million years ago.

Using advanced genomic and bioinformatic techniques, the researchers distinguished microbes that once lived alongside the mammoths from those that invaded their remains after death.

Study lead author Dr. Benjamin

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