Oldest-known DNA reveals life in a much warmer Greenland 2 million years ago (including, surprise, mastodons)

This 2 million-year-old trunk from a larch tree is stuck in the permafrost within the coastal deposits at Kap Kobenhavn, Greenland. The tree was carried to the sea by the rivers that eroded the former forested landscape, an analysis of DNA extracted from dirt samples in the area found. (Svend Funder / AP)

Scientists discovered the oldest-known DNA and used it to reveal what life was like two million years ago in the northern tip of Greenland. 

Today, that’s a barren Arctic desert. Back then, it was a lush landscape of trees and vegetation with an array of animals, even the now-extinct mastodon.