Oldest known RNA found in Siberian mammoth that died 39,000 years ago
Scientists have recovered the oldest-known RNA, a molecule necessary for most biological functions, from a woolly mammoth that inhabited Siberia about 39,000 years ago. The RNA, successfully isolated and sequenced, was extracted from muscle tissue in the left front leg of a juvenile male mammoth, whose carcass was discovered in 2010. "Nobody really thought this was possible," a biologist said.