🧬 Record: 50,000-year-old DNA discovered in Africa

Ancient DNA was thought to be almost impossible to preserve in sub-Saharan Africa due to heat and humidity. Yet a 50,000-year-old tooth, discovered in a South African cave, has just yielded its genetic material. This record pushes back the limits of paleogenomics in a region where high temperatures accelerate DNA degradation.

To achieve this, a team of researchers analyzed more than 300 teeth from animals that lived up to 110,000 years ago. Among them, a molar from a mountain reedbuck, an antelope still present today, provided DNA dating back 50,000 years. Three other samples, from extinct long-horned buffalo, are between 12,000 and 21,000 years old.


Using cutting-edge techniques, scientists extracted the DNA fragments. Although the amount recovered was tiny, it was enough to identify evolutionary lineages. This discovery proves that DNA can be preserved in Africa over tens of thousands of years, contrary to popular belief.

The lead researcher, Deon de Jager, however, remains cautious. Indeed, the reedbuck DNA is much older than the other samples and showed contamination by human DNA, but this was corrected. Since then, his team has also sequenced the genome of a 42,000-year-old wildebeest in Ethiopia, reinforcing the idea that DNA withstands the African climate better than previously thought.

The study, published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews, also shows that deep caves and high-altitude sites offer more stable and cool conditions ideal for preservation. The researchers estimate that DNA has a half-life of about 521 years, but remains usable for 40,000 to 50,000 years in southern Africa.

Despite this hope, extracting DNA from human ancestors such as Homo naledi, which went extinct 240,000 years ago, remains highly unlikely. To obtain such ancient DNA, an exceptionally well-preserved skull with an intact petrous bone would be needed, a rarity in the tropics. African conditions remain too harsh for that.