Extraction and sequencing of ancient DNA has revolutionized scientists’ understanding of numerous extinct species, but DNA can only tell us so much. RNA, however, can tell us which genes were actually “turned on,” offering unprecedented insight into the final moments of a deceased animal’s life. The recent recovery of surprisingly ancient mammoth RNA does exactly that.

The long-held belief that RNA is too fragile to survive even a few hours after death has discouraged experts from seeking it out in preserved mammoths and other ancient species, but new research upends this assumption. In the study, published Friday in the journal Cell , researchers successfully isolated and sequenced RNA molecules from Ice Age woolly mammoths for the first time ever.

These RNA sequences are the olde

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