Bone and teeth preserve DNA through the protection offered by the mineral matrix — the hydroxyapatite crystals of bone and dentine can shield DNA molecules from some of the chemical degradation that would otherwise destroy them over thousands of years.

In the alkaline cave environment of On Your Knees Cave, the preservation conditions were apparently favorable enough to maintain sufficient DNA for meaningful genomic analysis.

The extraction process, the sequencing technology, and the computational analysis of the resulting data all reflect the state of the ancient DNA field at the time the analysis was conducted — a field that has advanced rapidly and that continues to improve in its ability to extract and interpret genetic information from ancient specimens.

What Remains Unknown: The Honest Accounting