Russian scientists have accomplished an extremely rare feat by reviving a 30,000 year old plant frozen in time from the Ice Age.
Russian scientists discovered a burrow, believed to be from an Ice Age squirrel. Inside the burrow was fruit and seed of a Silene stenophylla stuck in a Siberian permafrost. From the fruit tissues, the scientists were able to revive the plant in an experiment that could pave the way for revival of other species, reported The Associated Press.
We consider it essential to continue permafrost studies in search of an ancient genetic pool, that of pre-existing life, which hypothetically has long since vanished from the earth's surface, the scientists said, according to their published findings in Tuesday's editions of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Scientists are hopeful that this plant can lead to the regeneration of other plants and animals frozen in time. Scroll through the slide show to view photos of some other Ice Age discoveries.
The mystery of Ötzi the Iceman, the 5,300 frozen mummy discovered in the Easter Alps about 20 years ago, may have been solved. Scientists said it appears dear, old Ötzi may have had the oldest known case of Lyme disease, the eventually led to his demise.ReutersScientists said on October 20 that they had dug an entire woolly mammoth, shown at the Jarkov mammoth site on October 17, from the Siberian permafrost and transported it, intact and still frozen, to a laboratory for study. They used a radar imaging technique to "see" the mammoth in its icy grave, then excavated a huge block of frozen dirt around it to preserve the 23,000-year-old creature. "It is the first time that a mammoth carcass from the permafrost of Siberia has been excavated under such cold conditions," Dick Mol of the Museum of Natural History in Rotterdam, told reporters in a telephone briefing. ReutersThe pelvis bone of a mammoth nicknamed "Zed" found at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles is shown in this publicity photo released to Reuters February 18, 2009. The nearly complete skeleton of a massive Columbian mammoth who died during the last ice age has been dug out of a construction site near the La Brea Tar Pits, a remarkable find even in the fossil-rich area, scientists said on Wednesday.ReutersGerald McSorley holds up a Jurassic fossil, clearly showing four prefectly preserved vertebrae, complete with spinal cord and blood vessels, which he found on the shores of Loch Ness, at his home in Stirling in Scotland, July 16, 2003. Though experts have stressed that the find is not related to the original Loch Ness monster - the remains of the plesiosaur (a long-necked, carnivorous sea reptile) are around 150 million years old and Loch Ness did not exist until the last Ice Age around 12,000 years ago - they say the find is evidence that the 35-foot-long creature once existed in the area.ReutersMembers of the excavation team Joshua Reuther, Ben Potter and Joel Irish excavate the burial pit at the Upward Sun River site in central Alaska in this August 2010 photograph released to Reuters on February 25, 2011. The 11,500-year-old cremated remains of child discovered in Alaska are the oldest human remains found in the far north of North America and the second-youngest Ice Age child ever found on the continent, scientists say. Reuters
