© ALAMYThe breakthrough raises the prospect of reconstructing the DNA of giant beasts which roamed Earth during the Pleistocene epoch, which ran from 2.6m to 11,700 years ago
Through DNA analysis researchers were able to create the genome - which contains a mammal's hereditary information - of a huge cave bear and a large horse that had been dead for hundreds of thousands of years.
The breakthrough, reported by The Sunday Times, came thanks to next-generation DNA sequencers which can analyse tens of thousands of DNA fragments from buried remains to reveal how they all fitted together when the animal was alive.
Even those mammals which died in moderate climates could now have their genomes reconstructed because research has suggested certain types of DNA can survive outside of permafrost.
Ludovic Orlando, professor of genetics at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, led a team which managed to build the genome of a horse which lived on the plains of Canada up to 780,000 years ago.
