Ancient Turtle Fossil Reveals DNA Remnants

Remnants of DNA have been discovered in a 6 million-year-old fossil of a sea turtle closely related to today's Kemp's ridley and olive ridley turtles, marking a rare find of genetic material in ancient vertebrate fossils. The fossil, excavated in Panama, contained well-preserved bone cells called osteocytes, some of which still had preserved cell nuclei containing traces of DNA. This discovery provides insights into the evolutionary history of the Lepidochelys genus and opens up possibilities for future studies on ancient DNA sequencing.