Scientists have revived a flower from the Ice Age, a squirrel and a mammoth will follow
Russian scientists have managed to revive a flower from the Ice Age. Silene stenophylla plant is the oldest plant which has ever been revived. At the same time it is capable of further propagation. It is decorated by white blossoms with little seeds (in the photograph there is its related plant Silene vulgaris). Even earlier Canadian scientists succeeded in reviving an ancient plant, however then it was a case of a significantly younger plant species.
The Russian scientists managed to get to plant remains in a squirrel burrow. Those were kept in Siberia by frozen soil – permafrost. The scientists published their findings in American magazine “ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences“.
“We found it necessary to continue in the study of permafrost like an ancient genetic pool. Since it contains the remains of the life which disappeared from this planet surface a long time ago,“ stated the scientists in their article.
The chief of the Institute of Cell Biophysics Svetlana Jasina, who supervised the reviving effort, claims that the plant looks very similar to its modern version, which still grows in the area of north-east Siberia.
“It is a viable plant and it adapts really well. We hope we will be able to continue in our work and revive other plants,“ said Jasina for AP agency.
The burrows are situated more than 40 metres under the present surface in layers where there are found, besides plant remainings, also bones of huge mammals, such as mamooths, woolly rhinoceroses, bison or horses.
In the opinion of the scientists it is now proved that plant and animal tissues are excellently preserved under ice and thus open a way for a possible revival of Ice Age mammals. “If we are lucky, we will discover some animal tissues of the then squirrels and this ways we will gradually come to a mammoth revival,“ stated for AP another member of the scientific team Stanislav Gubin.
The discovery of a preserved tissue may be in the future also the opportunity for revival of other extinct species, such as aurochs or European wild horse.
