An ancient land now submerged beneath the North Sea is revealing new secrets. Through the analysis of genetic material preserved in marine sediments, scientists are reconstructing the environment of Doggerland, a vast region that once connected continental Europe to the British Isles before disappearing at the end of the last Ice Age.
A Lost World Beneath the Sea
During the last glacial period, sea levels were much lower than they are today. Between roughly 20,000 and 8,000 years ago, the area now covered by the North Sea was a wide plain inhabited by animals and prehistoric human groups.
This region, known as Doggerland, served as a natural land bridge between mainland Europe and what is now Great Britain. It was likely crossed by hunter-gatherer communities following migrating animals across the landscape.
Today, this prehistoric territory lies underwater, but traces of its past are still preserved in sediments on the seabed.
Ancient Forests and Wildlife
Recent scientific studies have examined environmental DNA (eDNA) recovered from seabed sediments. Environmental DNA consists of tiny fragments of genetic material left behind by plants, animals, and microorganisms that lived in the area thousands of years ago.
The analysis has made it possible to reconstruct the ecosystem of Doggerland around 16,000 years ago. Rather than being a barren tundra, the region appears to have supported dense forests and a rich biodiversity.
Researchers identified genetic traces of:
- various tree species typical of temperate forests
- large herbivores such as deer and bison
- numerous small mammals and birds
These findings suggest that Doggerland provided a productive habitat that could sustain both wildlife and human hunter-gatherer populations.
A Land Slowly Swallowed by the Sea
At the end of the Ice Age, global temperatures began to rise. As glaciers melted, sea levels gradually increased, flooding coastal plains across the world.
Doggerland was slowly inundated over several millennia until it finally disappeared beneath the waters of the North Sea. What had once been a vast and habitable landscape became the seabed.
Because of this dramatic transformation, Doggerland is sometimes described as a kind of “prehistoric Atlantis”, a lost land that may still contain important evidence about ancient ecosystems and early human migration.
DNA as a Time Machine
The study highlights how modern genetic techniques can reveal long-lost environments even when visible archaeological remains are scarce. DNA preserved in sediments acts as a natural archive, recording which species once lived in a particular place.
Through these methods, scientists are gradually reconstructing the landscape of Doggerland, bringing back into focus a world that vanished thousands of years ago beneath the North Sea.
Source:
https://www.stilearte.it/doggerland-foreste-mare-del-nord-dna-16mila-anni/
Informazioni sull'autore
