Even though getting DNA this old is rare, we might not need ancient DNA to get valuable information on how the species came into existence. (via ArsTechnica) (From 2021)
revolutionized how we understand human evolution, revealing how populations moved and interacted and introducing us to relatives like the Denisovans, a "ghost lineage" that we wouldn't realize existed if it weren't for discovering their
Mammoths share something with humans: Like us, they started as an African population but spread across much of the planet. Having spread out much earlier, mammoth populations spent enough time separated from each other to form different species. After branching off from elephants, the mammoths first split into what are called southern and steppe species.
We don't have precise dates for any of the teeth, as they appear to be too old for carbon dating. Instead, dates have been inferred using a combination of the species present in the deposits and the known timing of flips in the orientation of Earth's magnetic field. In addition, the shape of the teeth provides some hints about what species they group with and some further indication of when they were deposited.
While these dates are fairly uncertain, they pretty clearly place two of the samples as the oldest DNA ever obtained from animals. And it would mean that these mammoths were living in Siberia shortly after ice-age conditions prevailed, although before there was a clear woolly mammoth lineage. They'd also predate the known appearance of mammoths in North America.And they do.