A long-term biomolecular study of Georgian scientists and their foreign colleagues confirmed that the oldest DNA in the world, extracted from animal remains, was found in southeastern Georgia.

The results of this study were published by the world’s leading scientific journal Nature in the UK, published in the article, the authors of which, together with Georgian scientists, are specialists from research centers in Europe and the USA.

It is noted that scientists managed to extract important genetic information from the tooth enamel of the found rhino remains, which is about 1.77 million years old. The remains were found in the ancient fortification of Dmanisi, located 90 km from Tbilisi in the Kvemo Kartli region.

“This is the oldest DNA taken from the remains of an animal, which is a million years older than the information previously known about the DNA taken from a horse 700,000 years ago from a horse on Ukon Island, in northwestern Canada,” the report says.

The results of this study were published by the world’s leading scientific journal Nature in the UK, published in the article, the authors of which, together with Georgian scientists, are specialists from research centers in Europe and the USA.

According to scientists, “this is a breakthrough in ancient biomolecular research, which allows us to restore the evolutionary picture of much earlier eras than was possible until today, as well as to study the history of the ancestors of animals and humans.”

The biomolecular project was developed and implemented in the framework of cooperation between the National Museum of Georgia and the Copenhagen (Denmark) Museum under the guidance of Academician David Lortkipanidze and Professor Eske Wirslev. Analyzes were carried out in the laboratories of the institutes of Copenhagen, Cambridge and Max Planck. Italian scientists from the University of Florence actively participated in paleontological studies.