The effects of the melting polar ice caps may one day be felt well beyond the poles, though. As the polar ice caps shrink, sea levels begin to rise, creating serious problems for coastal areas around the globe. Fortunately, we can do our part to slow down and prevent the environmental changes causing the polar ice caps to melt.
Paabo and colleagues used a new method for sequencing ancient, degraded genetic material to put together the 400,000-year-old specimen's mitochondrial genome. It is the oldest DNA ever found outside permafrost conditions -- in other words, it was not permanently frozen.
By Janet Fang. Scientists working in Ethiopia have discovered a jawbone complete with five teeth that belonged to an early member of our genus Homo. At 2.8 million years old, this fossil is not only the oldest Homo fossil ever found, it also suggests that our genus arose half a million years earlier than we thought. These epic findings were published in three new studies published this week.