The soil beneath an ancient cave or lakebed holds the DNA of every plant, animal, microbe, and human that ever lived there.

Sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) is now reading that record — reconstructing past temperatures to 0.5°C precision, finding 28 animal species in a single Spanish cave (15 absent from the entire bone record), confirming Denisovans on the Tibetan Plateau from dirt alone.

Kerala’s deep lakes. Western Ghats sediment cores. South Asian cave deposits.

The molecular ghosts are likely still there. This week’s Research Rundown explores why — and what it means for Indian researchers.

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