LAUSR

While there are extensive macroand microfossil records of a range of plants and animals from the Quaternary, earthwormsand their close relatives amongstannelids arenotpreservedas fossils and therefore theknowledgeof their past distributions is limited. This lack of fossils means that clitellate worms (Annelida) are currently underused in palaeoecological research, even though they can provide valuable information about terrestrial and aquatic environmental conditions. Their DNA might be preserved in sediments, which offers an alternative method for detection. Here we analyse lacustrine sediments from lakes in the Polar Urals, Arctic Russia, covering the period 24 000–1300 cal. a BP, and NE Norway, covering 10 700–3300 cal. a BP, using a universal mammal 16S rDNA marker.Whilemammalswere recordedusing themarker (reindeerwasdetected twice in thePolarUrals coreat 23 000 and 14 000 cal. a BP, and four times in the Norwegian core at 11 000 cal. a BP and between 3600–3300 cal. a BP), worm extracellular DNA ‘bycatch’ was rather high. In this paper we present the first reportedworm detection from ancientDNA.Our results demonstrate thatbothaquatic and terrestrial clitellates canbe identified in late-Quaternary lacustrine sediments, and the ecological information retrievable fromthisgroupwarrants further researchwithamore targeted approach.