Scientists Decode DNA Of 700,000-Year-Old Horse
Przewalski's Horse A modern day Przewalski's horse. The fossil DNA confirmed the Przewalski's horse is a wild species that hasn't interbred with domestic horses. Claudia Feh, Association pour le cheval de Przewalski: TAKH, Le Villaret, F 48125 Meyrueis Tak The oldest sequenced genome will help researchers understand horse evolution. So scientists have decoded the genome of a 700,000-year-old horse. It wasn't enough to figure out exactly what the horse looked like-hair color, for example, will have to wait for further analysis-but it helped the researchers come up with several new ideas about horse evolution. The feat pushes back the record for the oldest sequenced genome nearly tenfold. Before this, the oldest sequenced genome came from a hominid called a Denisovan, which lived 80,000 years ago. The techniques the horse researchers developed may help other teams sequence other ancient creatures. From what they saw in their horse, discovered in the permafrost in the Canadian...