Rosa Rubicondior: Creationism Refuted - 40,000-Year-Old Woolly Mammoth RNA

One of Yuka’s legs, illustrating the exceptional preservation of the lower part of the leg after the skin had been removed, which enabled recovery of ancient RNA molecules.

Photo: Valeri Plotnikov.

The world’s oldest RNA extracted from woolly mammoth - Stockholm University

Scientists led by researchers from Stockholm University, Denmark, have just announced that they have successfully extracted RNA from 40,000-year-old mammoth remains — the oldest RNA ever obtained. This shows that not only DNA but also RNA can persist for extraordinary lengths of time under the right conditions, adding yet more to the mountain of evidence that undermines creationist claims. With preserved RNA, researchers can even reconstruct the DNA that originally served as its template, effectively giving scientists two independent avenues for recovering genetic information.

One of the joys of debunking creationism — a childish superstition when set beside the rigour of evolutionary biology — is the sheer abundance of evidence. Almost every peer-reviewed paper in biology, geology, palaeontology, cosmology, and the other natural sciences demonstrates, in one way or another, the reality of evolution and the age of the Earth, and presents verifiable results that creationism simply cannot accommodate.

Even psychology lends its weight. Not only does it support an evolutionary account of human cognition and intelligence, but it also helps explain why creationists cling so tightly to demonstrably false beliefs. For many, rejecting evidence becomes a test of loyalty or personal strength, with scientific data treated as part of a supposed conspiracy designed to shake their faith. If they can cling to their faith despite the overwhelming contrary evidence, then they must really believe it.

Adding this new discovery to the existing evidence is rather like tossing a pebble onto Mount Everest and expecting creationists to accept the mountain’s existence because a pebble lies on it. Such acceptance is impossible for the committed creationist, since that would mean yielding to the ‘evil conspiracy’ and admitting that their favourite holy book is not a perfect, divinely authored scientific text, but a compilation of Bronze Age and Early Iron Age mythology, created by people doing their best to explain a world they did not yet understand.

RNA in the Cell: A Brief Overview. RNA (ribonucleic acid) is a versatile molecule central to the flow of genetic information and the regulation of cellular activity. While DNA stores the long-term instructions for building and maintaining an organism, RNA acts as the working copy, messenger, interpreter, regulator, and sometimes even the catalyst.

Key roles of RNA include:

Messenger RNA (mRNA)
mRNA molecules carry the genetic code from DNA in the nucleus to the ribosomes, where proteins are assembled. Each mRNA sequence corresponds to a specific protein, making it the crucial link between genetic instructions and the proteins that do most of the cell’s work.
Ribosomal RNA (rRNA)
rRNA forms the core structural and catalytic components of ribosomes. It not only provides the scaffold for protein synthesis but also catalyses the formation of peptide bonds — meaning the ribosome itself is a ribozyme (an RNA enzyme).
Transfer RNA (tRNA)
tRNAs act as adaptors during protein synthesis, matching each three-letter codon on the mRNA with the correct amino acid. This ensures proteins are built with the right sequence and structure.
Regulatory RNA
Not all RNA makes proteins. Many types regulate gene activity, fine-tuning how much of a protein is produced and when.

MicroRNA (miRNA)
These short RNA molecules (around 22 nucleotides long) bind to complementary sequences in mRNAs and either suppress translation or promote mRNA degradation. They act as powerful switches and dimmers in gene expression, influencing development, immunity, metabolism, and many disease processes.
Small interfering RNA (siRNA)
siRNAs guide the cell’s machinery to cut up specific mRNA molecules, silencing genes with remarkable precision. This mechanism protects cells from viruses and transposable elements.
Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) These longer RNA molecules perform a wide variety of regulatory tasks, from recruiting chromatin-modifying proteins to influencing the three-dimensional organisation of DNA.

Catalytic and structural RNA Some RNA molecules act as enzymes (ribozymes) or form structural parts of cellular machinery, highlighting RNA’s ancient evolutionary origins.

The research is published in Cell and explained in a Stockholm University news item.

The world’s oldest RNA extracted from woolly mammoth
Researchers from Stockholm University have – for the first time ever – managed to successfully isolate and sequence RNA molecules from Ice Age woolly mammoths. These RNA sequences are the oldest ever recovered and come from mammoth tissue preserved in the Siberian permafrost for nearly 40,000 years. The study, published in the journal Cell, shows that not only DNA and proteins, but also RNA, can be preserved for very long periods of time, and provide new insights into the biology of species that have long since become extinct.

With RNA, we can obtain direct evidence of which genes are ‘turned on’, offering a glimpse into the final moments of life of a mammoth that walked the Earth during the last Ice Age. This is information that cannot be obtained from DNA alone.

Dr. Emilio Mármol, lead author,
Science for Life Laboratory
Department of Molecular Biosciences
The Wenner-Gren Institute
Stockholm University
Stockholm, Sweden.

Sequencing prehistoric genes and studying how they are activated is important to understand the biology and evolution of extinct species. For years, scientists have been decoding mammoth DNA to piece together their genomes and evolutionary history. Yet RNA, the molecule that shows which genes are active, has so far remained out of reach. The long-held belief that RNA is too fragile to even survive a few hours after death has likely discouraged researchers from exploring these information-rich molecules in mammoths and other long-extinct species.

We gained access to exceptionally well-preserved mammoth tissues unearthed from the Siberian permafrost, which we hoped would still contain RNA molecules frozen in time.

Dr. Emilio Mármol.

We have previously pushed the limits of DNA recovery past a million years. Now, we wanted to explore whether we could expand RNA sequencing further back in time than done in previous studies.

Professor Love Dalén, senior author
Centre for Palaeogenetics
Stockholm, Sweden.

The oldest RNA ever sequenced

The researchers were able to identify tissue-specific patterns of gene expression in frozen muscle remains from Yuka, a juvenile mammoth that died almost 40,000 years ago. Among the more than 20,000 protein-coding genes in the mammoth’s genome, far from all of them were active. The detected RNA molecules code for proteins with key functions in muscle contraction and metabolic regulation under stress. The study was conducted at Stockholm University in collaboration with researchers at both SciLifeLab and the Centre for Palaeogenetics, a joint initiative between Stockholm University and the Swedish Museum of Natural History.

We found signs of cell stress, which is perhaps not surprising since previous research suggested that Yuka was attacked by cave lions shortly before his death.

Dr. Emilio Mármol.

The researchers also found a myriad of RNA molecules that regulate the activity of genes in the mammoth muscle samples.
RNAs that do not encode for proteins, such as microRNAs, were among the most exciting findings we got. The muscle-specific microRNAs we found in mammoth tissues are direct evidence of gene regulation happening in real time in ancient times. It is the first time something like this has been achieved.

Associate Professor Marc R. Friedländer, co-corresponding author
Science for Life Laboratory
Department of Molecular Biosciences
The Wenner-Gren Institute
Stockholm University
Stockholm, Sweden.

The microRNAs that were identified also helped the researchers confirm that the findings really came from mammoths.

We found rare mutations in certain microRNAs that provided a smoking-gun demonstration of their mammoth origin. We even detected novel genes solely based on RNA evidence, something never before attempted in such ancient remains.

Associate Professor Bastian Fromm, co-author
The Arctic University Museum of Norway, UiT
The Arctic University of Norway
Tromsø, Norway.

Our results demonstrate that RNA molecules can survive much longer than previously thought. This means that we will not only be able to study which genes are ‘turned on’ in different extinct animals, but it will also be possible to sequence RNA viruses, such as influenza and coronaviruses, preserved in Ice Age remains.

Professor Love Dalén.

In the future, the researchers hope to conduct studies that combine prehistoric RNA with DNA, proteins, and other preserved biomolecules.
Such studies could fundamentally reshape our understanding of extinct megafauna as well as other species, revealing the many hidden layers of biology that have remained frozen in time until now.

Dr. Emilio Mármol.

About woolly mammoths
Woolly mammoths once roamed the icy plains of Eurasia and North America, perfectly adapted to life during the last Ice Age (approximately 115,000–11,500 years ago). With their thick coats, curved tusks, and towering size, they grazed the vast steppes that stretched across the northern hemisphere. But as the climate warmed, the woolly mammoths gradually vanished, with the last small herds surviving on remote Arctic islands until just 4,000 years ago.

Publication:
Mármol-Sánchez, Emilio; Fromm, Bastian; Oskolkov, Nikolay; Pochon, Zoé; Dehasque, Marianne; Aslanzadeh, Morteza; Bozlak, Elif; Brown, Katherine; van der Valk, Tom; Kalogeropoulos, Panagiotis; Chacón-Duque, J. Camilo; Biryukova, Inna; Heintzman, Peter D.; Furugård, Cecilia; Plotnikov, Valeri; Protopopov, Albert; Andersson, Björn; Ersmark, Erik; Peterson, Kevin J.; Friedländer, Marc R.; Dalén, Love
Ancient RNA expression profiles from the extinct woolly mammoth
Cell (2025) doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.10.025

Highlights

Ancient RNA molecules are preserved in Late Pleistocene woolly mammoth tissues
Transcriptional data allow the annotation of novel noncoding loci
Tissue-specific gene expression patterns are preserved through time
Ancient RNA expression profiles undercover missing insights from extinct paleofauna

Summary
Ancient DNA has revolutionized the study of extinct and extant organisms that lived up to 2 million years ago, enabling the reconstruction of genomes from multiple extinct species, as well as the ecosystems where they once thrived. However, current DNA sequencing techniques alone cannot directly provide insights into tissue identity, gene expression dynamics, or transcriptional regulation, as these are encoded in the RNA fraction. Here, we report transcriptional profiles from 10 Late Pleistocene woolly mammoths. One of these, dated to be ∼39,000 years old, yielded sufficient detail to recover tissue-specific regulatory mechanisms and biological functions essential for skeletal muscle metabolism, representing the oldest ancient RNA sequences recorded to date. We showcase the potential to study ancient RNA molecules beyond preconceived limitations, providing an analytical framework for validating and decoding preserved transcriptomes through time. With our findings, we anticipate the emergence of integrative paleo-studies combining genomics, proteomics, and transcriptomics.
Graphical abstract

Introduction
RNA molecules play crucial and varied roles in cell metabolism, from carrying coding information to producing functional proteins,¹ regulating gene expression,² or facilitating protein assembly³ and intron splicing⁴ by virtue of their catalytic properties.⁵ Dynamic transcriptional changes shape and regulate cell metabolism across different developmental stages, or in response to environmental stimuli contributing to adaptation,⁶ as well as fine-tuning genome organization and gene expression.⁷ Such a trove of information is not directly available from genomic DNA alone and only partially captured by proteomic analyses.

Extinct species pose a particular problem in recovering transcriptional data, as living sources of fresh RNA are no longer available. While ancient DNA (aDNA) and proteins have demonstrated to be relatively stable after an organism’s death, in some cases surviving for millions of years,^8,9,10 RNA is considered fragile due to its rapid degradation by RNases,¹¹ making it unlikely to persist after death without immediate fixation. As a result, ancient RNA (aRNA) studies have remained rare, despite being at the forefront of the paleogenetic field during its early years.¹² Nevertheless, there have been successful efforts in using formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues for sequencing historical RNA viral genomes, such as the H1N1 “Spanish flu”^13,14,15 or HIV.^16,17 Besides, recent studies have demonstrated that RNA can be recovered and sequenced from both ancient^18,19 and historical animal specimens^20,21,22 with sufficient resolution to reveal tissue-specific gene expression patterns. Despite these groundbreaking results, the aRNA field is still in its infancy.

In this study, we sought to extend the aRNA record to the study of ancient transcriptomes in extinct paleofauna, for which the woolly mammoth serves as a renowned example. We present a methodological framework for the isolation of aRNA molecules, leveraging and expanding on previous studies using historical and ancient specimens.^18,19,22 In addition, we outline quality control measures via metagenomic and metatranscriptomic approaches, along with sequencing depth considerations, mapping strategies, and sequence analyses aimed at characterizing features found in ancient transcriptional data. These analyses account for the intrinsic mapping properties and fragmentary nature of aRNA molecules to exclude sources of DNA contamination biasing gene abundance profiling. Moreover, we propose standards for determining the transcriptional abundance, tissue identity, and endogenous origin of aRNA sequences. Applying these approaches to our mammoth samples, we identified several muscle-specific mRNAs from one of the specimens, as well as putative novel microRNA candidate loci in the woolly mammoth genome assembly²³ based on gene expression evidence using mammoth-derived aRNA sequences.

Taken together, our findings highlight the possibility to extract, sequence, analyze, and validate transcriptional profiles from ancient specimens up to around 40,000 years old, thus opening the door to generating aRNA profiles from a wide range of Pleistocene remains from both extinct and extant species.

Mármol-Sánchez, Emilio; Fromm, Bastian; Oskolkov, Nikolay; Pochon, Zoé; Dehasque, Marianne; Aslanzadeh, Morteza; Bozlak, Elif; Brown, Katherine; van der Valk, Tom; Kalogeropoulos, Panagiotis; Chacón-Duque, J. Camilo; Biryukova, Inna; Heintzman, Peter D.; Furugård, Cecilia; Plotnikov, Valeri; Protopopov, Albert; Andersson, Björn; Ersmark, Erik; Peterson, Kevin J.; Friedländer, Marc R.; Dalén, Love
Ancient RNA expression profiles from the extinct woolly mammoth
Cell (2025) doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.10.025

Copyright: © 2025 The authors.
Published by Elsevier Inc. Open access.
Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)

Discoveries such as this inevitably join the ever-growing catalogue of evidence that creationists must either ignore, distort, or flatly deny. Each new finding from genetics, palaeontology, geology, or any other branch of science adds another layer to an already overwhelming picture of deep time and evolutionary change. Yet rather than reconsider their assumptions, creationists are forced into increasingly contorted explanations to protect a predetermined conclusion.

The recovery of RNA from a 40,000-year-old mammoth isn’t just a technical achievement; it is a direct demonstration of the continuity of biological processes across vast stretches of time. It shows, once again, that life has a history — a long, dynamic, and traceable history — written not only in fossils and rocks but also in the molecules preserved within ancient remains. This is precisely the sort of finding that a young-Earth worldview cannot reconcile without resorting to ad hoc excuses and conspiratorial thinking.

As always, the science moves forward, independent of ideology. Researchers piece together the past using evidence, replication, and peer review, while creationist dogma remains frozen in place, unable to adapt without collapsing entirely. The result is predictable: every new discovery is dismissed, misrepresented, or recast as somehow “supporting” creationism, even when it does the exact opposite.

In reality, it is precisely these incremental advances — the ability to read ancient DNA and now ancient RNA — that make the evolutionary narrative ever more robust. Whether creationists choose to acknowledge it or not is irrelevant to the science; but for those committed to understanding the natural world, findings like this offer yet another glimpse into the deep and fascinating history of life on Earth.

Creationism isn't a problem for science, but science is fatal to creationism.

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