DNA Fragments in Crude Oil Reveals Earth's Hidden History

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that DNA extracted from crude oil can serve as a new source of ecological and evolutionary information, revealing Earth's hidden history and offering insights beyond traditional fossils.

Contribution

It introduces nanoparticle affinity bead technology to extract DNA from petroleum, uncovering ancient DNA that enhances understanding of Earth's past and revolutionizes petroleum geology and paleontology.

Findings

Extracted over 3 million petroleum DNA sequences.

Revealed oil as a new type of fossil with ecological and evolutionary data.

Identified unclassified species and ancient events from DNA in petroleum.

Abstract

This groundbreaking research extracted DNA from petroleum using nanoparticle affinity bead technology, yielding 3,159,020 petroleum DNA (pDNA) sequences, primarily environmental DNA. While most original in situ DNA (oriDNA) was lost, ancient DNA (aDNA) from petroleum offers an important source of ecological and evolutionary information, surpassing traditional fossils. This study reveals that oil, mainly sourced from algae and lower aquatic plants, now serves as a new type of fossil, providing detailed insights into Earth's hidden history, including unclassified species and ancient events, revolutionizing petroleum geology and paleontology.