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Ancient Viruses Dating Back 15,000 Years Discovered In Melting Tibetan Glaciers
Bacteriophages on a bacterium. (Graham Beards/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0)
Highlights
- From extraordinarily well-preserved extinct megafauna like the woolly rhino to a huge wolf's 40,000-year-old remains and germs that are over 750,000 years old.
- The history of ancient ecosystems, including specifics of the settings in which they thrived, is being revealed through these amazing glimpses of species from Earth's incredibly distant past.
It almost seems that ancient animals are rising from the frozen stores of melting permafrost. From extraordinarily well-preserved extinct megafauna like the woolly rhino to a huge wolf's 40,000-year-old remains and germs that are over 750,000 years old.
In the warmth of the laboratory, centuries-old moss was able to reanimate. Amazingly, microscopic roundworms that were 42,000 years old were also found.
The history of ancient ecosystems, including specifics of the settings in which they thrived, is being revealed through these amazing glimpses of species from Earth's incredibly distant past. However, there are some worries that outdated viruses could resurface as a result of the melt.
Researchers explained that these glaciers developed gradually, and many, many viruses were also deposited in that ice along with the dust and gases. These microorganisms may be an accurate representation of those found in the atmosphere at the time of their deposit.
Meanwhile, the earlier research mentioned that the microbial communities can both predict current climate and environmental conditions as well as changes in dust and ion concentrations in the atmosphere. The researchers found that 28 of the 33 viruses they identified had never been observed previously in these ancient frozen records located 6.7 kilometres (22,000 feet) above sea level in China.
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