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Polar Bear Bones

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Based on the jawbone's shape, scientists were confident that it belonged to an adult male polar bear. The rock layers in which it was embedded, along with other dating techniques, suggest that it is 110,000 to 130,000 years old — older than any other known polar bear fossils. This date alone is interesting because previous estimates for the origin of polar bears have ranged from 70,000 to more than a million years ago. But, based on the new fossil's age, we can infer that the polar bear lineage must be more than 110,000 years old. The anatomy and rocks in which the jawbone was preserved provided useful information — but the fossil had an even more powerful line of evidence: DNA.
DNA breaks down over time, but new techniques allow scientists

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