BEIJING, July 6 (Xinhuanet) -- An analysis of the oldest DNA samples ever recovered from under a mile of Greenland ice reveal the island was much warmer during the last Ice Age than previously imagined. 

    The DNA proves that between 450,000 and 800,000 years ago, much of Greenland was especially green and covered in a boreal forest that was home to alder, spruce and pine trees, as well as insects such as butterflies and beetles.

    The genetic material of these organisms infer to researchers that Greenland's summer temperature was as high as 50 degrees Fahrenheit and in winter fell to 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit ¡ª the temperature range that the tree species prefer.

    "We have shown for the first time that southern Greenland ... was once very different to the Greenland we see today," said study leader Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen.

    Less glacial cover in ancient Greenland means the global ocean was probably between three and six feet higher during that time compared to current levels, the scientists say.

    "To get this site ice free you would've had to remove the ice cover from about the southern third of Greenland," study team member Martin Sharp, a glaciologist at the University of Alberta, Canada, told LiveScience.

    The findings, reported in the July 6 issue of the journal Science, demonstrate how far the young field of ancient DNA research has come: scientists can now recreate an environment's climate and ecology using only recovered DNA, without the need for fossils that might be absent or hard to reach.

    "To go from dirty water to a forest full of insects is pretty amazing," study team member Matthew Collins, a biomolecular archaeologist at the University of York, said in a related Science news article.

    (Agencies)