Can We Get DNA From Fossils?

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to http://to.pbs.org/DonateEons ↓ More info below ↓ In 1993, scientists cracked open a piece of amber, took out the body of an ancient weevil, and sampled its DNA. Or, at least, so we thought. It took another few decades of research, and a lot of take-backs, before scientists could figure out how we could truly unlock the genetic secrets of the past. Produced for PBS Digital Studios. Super special thanks to the following Patreon patrons for helping make Eons possible: Katie Fichtner, Aldo Espinosa Zúñiga, Anthony Callaghan, الخليفي سلطان, Gabriel Cortez, Marcus Lejon, Anel Salas, Robert Arévalo, Robert Hill, Kelby Reid, Todd Dittman, Betsy Radley, Svetlana Pylaeva, Colin Sylvester, Philip Slingerland, John Vanek, Jose Garcia, Noah offitzer, Eric Vonk, Tony Wamsley, Henrik Peteri, Jonathan Wright, Jon Monteiro, James Bording, Brad Nicholls, Miles Chaston, Michael McClellan, Jeff Graham, Maria Humphrey, Nathan Paskett, Connor Jensen, Sapjes, Daisuke Goto, Hubert Rady, Yuntao Zhou, Gregory Kintz, Tyson Cleary, Chandler Bass, Maly Lor, Joao Ascensao. Tsee Lee, Sarah Fritts, Ruben Winter, Ron Harvey Jr, Joshua Mitchell, Johnny Li, Jacob Gerke, Alex Yan If you d like to support the channel, head over to http://patreon.com/eons and pledge for some cool rewards! Want to follow Eons elsewhere on the internet? Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/eonsshow Twitter - https://twitter.com/eonsshow Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/eonsshow/ References: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0170940 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28486705 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1755-0998.12911 https://www.nature.com/articles/nature13408 https://www.nature.com/articles/nature10574 http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1603/0013-8746%282004%29097%5B0882%3ATEFMDC%5D2.0.CO%3B2 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26989198 https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/pjab1977/65/10/65_10_229/_article http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/264/1381/467 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/20548923.2016.1258824 https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/jurassic-park-and-the-race-for-ancient-dna/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1684053 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14711425 https://www.nature.com/articles/362709a0 https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article/44/8/615/188189/fossil-dna-persistence-and-decay-in-marine https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23055061 https://www.nature.com/articles/363536a0 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2694912/