Scientists Revive 30,000-Year-Old Ice Age Plant from Permafrost

Russian researchers have achieved an incredible feat by resurrecting a Late Pleistocene flower from seeds buried 31,800 years ago. Discovered in an Arctic ground squirrel's hibernation burrow 124 feet beneath the Siberian permafrost near the Kolyma River, the ancient tissue was perfectly preserved at freezing temperatures since the age of woolly mammoths.

Scientists from the Institute of Cell Biophysics bypassed damaged mature seeds by extracting living cells from the fruit's placental tissue. Through advanced tissue culture, they successfully cloned these cells into full, living specimens of Silene stenophylla (narrow-leafed campion). 

The resurrected Ice Age plants grew to produce delicate white flowers, and their subsequent seeds achieved a flawless 100% germination rate—even outperforming modern versions of the same species.

#IceAgeDiscovery #PermafrostResurrection #ScienceNews