The World - No bones about it, Ice Age fur is found rich in DNA

Using samples of fur from mammoths that roamed Siberia 17,000 to 50,000 years ago, the researchers were able, they say, to reconstruct the complete mitochondrial genomes of 10 animals, even though some of the hair had been stored at room temperature for 200 years.

By multiplying the potential sources of ancient DNA, the discovery could accelerate efforts to clone woolly mammoths and other extinct beasts, though scientists said it would take millions of dollars and decades of work to overcome the daunting technical hurdles that remain.

The findings, released today by the journal Science, suggest that heaps of ancient DNA are readily available in natural history museums and other collections, not just in fossil bones buried beneath layers of permafrost, said Tom Gilbert, a biologist at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, who led the study.

"Think about all the extinct furred animals that are displayed in museums around the world," Gilbert said. "There is a lot of work waiting for us."

The workload could get even bigger if scientists rethink the value of ancient fur and begin collecting it in earnest. Caves in the southwestern United States contain lots of hair from such bygone species as dire wolves, short-faced bears, ground sloths and mastodons, said Ross MacPhee, a curator in the division of vertebrate zoology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

"My guess is that hair recovery will now be de rigueur in certain kinds of archaeology," said MacPhee, who wasn't involved in the study. "It's kind of amazing stuff."

This isn't the first time scientists have tried to coax DNA out of ancient hair. Efforts in the 1990s produced erratic results, and hair shafts were thought to be especially vulnerable to contamination, which is a problem with bone samples as well.

"It just didn't cut the mustard," MacPhee said. "People had more consistent success with bone."

But a decade later, Gilbert decided to try again.

In earlier studies, he found that the hair shaft was actually quite resistant to bacteria and other potential contaminants, offering protection to any DNA that might be inside. He suspects that keratin in hair shafts protects the interior from water and bacteria, two of the primary culprits in DNA degradation.