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Scientists sequence DNA of extinct bear
BY BETSY MASON
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. - (KRT) - Scientists have sequenced the DNA of a long-extinct species of cave bear using a method they hope will work on Neanderthals, as well.
This is the first time anyone has been able to get more than just bits of the genome sequence of an extinct animal.
"We got significant amounts of genome sequence, and our samples are 20,000 years older than anything people have been able to get any genome sequence from," said genome scientist James Noonan of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, lead author of the study that appears Friday in the journal Science.
Noonan's team, which includes Joint Genome Institute director Eddy Rubin and ancient DNA experts from Austria and Germany, worked with a tooth and a femur bone from the remains of two cave bears that lived in Austria around 40,000 years ago.
Dalje
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