News > Clue to rising sea levels lies in DNA of 4m-year-old octopus, scientists say

Clue to rising sea levels lies in DNA of 4m-year-old octopus, scientists say

Climate scientists have been struggling to work out if the ice sheet collapsed completely during the most recent “interglacial” period about 125,000 years ago when global temperatures were similar to today. In an ingenious approach, a team of 11 scientists – including biologists, geneticists, glaciologists, computer scientists and ice-sheet modellers – looked at the genetics of Turquet’s octopus – a species that has been living around the Antarctic continent for about 4m years.