Frozen droppings of prehistoric ground squirrels are chock-full of DNA from ice-age beasts, including woolly mammoths, a mysterious big cat and a huge array of other organisms, revealing a remarkably detailed genetic snapshot of ancient life in Canada's rugged Yukon.
Although the genetic material of large creatures was found in the ground squirrels' poop, these rodents were not carnivores. They were opportunistic omnivores that feasted on a wide variety of plant material and fungi, as well as insects, rodents and carrion, just like Arctic ground squirrels (Urocitellus parryii) do today in the Yukon Territory and other parts of northwestern North America and Siberia.
