Evolutionary patterns and processes: Lessons from ancient DNA

Abstract

Ever since its emergence in 1984, the field of ancient DNA has struggled to overcome the challenges related to the decay ofDNAmolecules in the fossil record.With the recent development of high-throughputDNAsequencing technologies and molecular techniques tailored to ultra-damaged templates, it has now come of age, merging together approaches in phylogenomics, population genomics, epigenomics, and metagenomics. Leveraging on complete temporal sample series, ancient DNA provides direct access to the most important dimension in evolution-time, allowing awealth of fundamental evolutionary processes to be addressed at unprecedented resolution. This review taps into the most recent findings in ancient DNA research to present analyses of ancient genomic and metagenomic data.