32,000 yrs ago an Arctic ground squirrel cached some fruit in its burrow, which was later sealed by sediment & frozen.
In the 2000s scientists unearthed the fruit & cultivated its tissue. It grew into this: a Pleistocene ancestor of the narrow-leafed campion (Silene stenophylla)
Wow. Thirty two thousand years ago. Pretty damn amazing.
Some of the excavated squirrel burrows contained hundreds of thousands of ancient fruit & seeds. All that genetic information the ungerminated generations, the apparitions of Ice Age Earth frozen in time & place, preserving the possibility of resurrection.
H/t Vanina
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6 responses to “It grew”
Welcome to Paleolithic Park…
FEED MEEE!!!
But seriously, just showed this to my mother, who was wowed. The paper mentions the possibility of ancient plants sprouting anew as permafrost thaws. Wow indeed.
Astounding. I shall share this with my students (once Nebraska thaws out).
32 THOUSAND years.
Instead of linking to fecesbook, why not link to the original article?
https://www.pnas.org/content/109/10/4008