Had the Yana site been excavated in the 1970s or 1980s, the teeth would have been recognized as ancient human remains and carefully curated — but the DNA sequencing technology to make them scientifically transformative did not yet exist.

Had the permafrost melted before the excavation — as permafrost in many parts of Siberia is indeed beginning to melt as global temperatures rise — the material might have been lost.

The window of opportunity in which both the material and the technology coincide is not guaranteed to remain open.

This gives the 2019 discovery an urgency beyond its scientific significance: it is a reminder that the archive of the Siberian permafrost is finite, is currently being threatened by warming, and needs to be studied before the ice that preserved it for 31,000 years melts.

The Living Descendants — The Indigenous Peoples And A Complicated Heritage