The prospects for ancient DNA preservation in Texas are, as noted earlier, generally poor because of the warm climate.

But the field of ancient DNA science is advancing rapidly.

New methods for extracting and analyzing degraded DNA have been developed that can recover genetic information from samples that would have yielded nothing a decade ago.

Sediment DNA — genetic material preserved in cave soils and sediments rather than in bones — is increasingly being recovered from cave environments around the world.

The possibility exists that future researchers, with methods not yet developed or deployed, might be able to recover genetic information from the sediments of Texas caves and sinkholes even where physical remains are no longer available.