Plant blooms after 30,000 years in permafrost

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Plant blooms after 30,000 years in permafrost
OP - February 21, 2012, 06:56 AM

I thought this was kinda cool, and don't give me any permafrost jokes about cool. Kthnx.

Plant blooms after 30,000 years in permafrost

Quote
A plant that last flowered when woolly mammoths roamed the plains is back in bloom.

Biologists have resurrected a 30,000-year-old plant, cultivating it from fruit tissue recovered from frozen sediment in Siberia. The plant is by far the oldest to be brought back from the dead: the previous record holder was a sacred lotus, dating back about 1200 years.

The late David Gilichinsky from the Soil Cryology Laboratory in Moscow, Russia, and colleagues recovered the fruits of the ice age flowering plant (Silene stenophylla) from a fossilised squirrel burrow in frozen sediments near the Kolyma river in north-east Siberia. Radiocarbon dating of the fruit suggests the squirrel stashed it around 31,800 years ago, just before the ice rolled in.

By applying growth hormones to the fruit tissue, Gilichinsky and his colleagues managed to kick-start cell division and ultimately produce a viable flowering plant.

Modern day S. stenophylla looks similar to the resurrected plant, but has larger seeds and fewer buds. Modern plants also grow roots more rapidly. Studying these and other differences will reveal how the plant has evolved since the last ice age.

Alan Cooper, director of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide, is impressed but cautious, because some supposedly "ancient" plants grown from permafrost have turned out to be modern contaminants. To rule out this possibility, Gilichinsky's team went to some lengths to verify that the fruit came from undisturbed deposits, they say.

"It is an exciting result and tells us we shouldn't just look for seeds when trying to generate ancient material," says Steven Penfield, a plant scientist at the University of Exeter in Colchester, UK.

Similar fossilised burrows have been identified in Alaska and Canada. "If permafrost continues to melt, I would think it likely that a small fraction of ancient seeds will germinate, survive and grow spontaneously," says Buford Price from the University of California, Berkeley.

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Re: Plant blooms after 30,000 years in permafrost
Reply #1 - February 21, 2012, 07:03 AM

Pretty rockin, almost like going back in time.

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Re: Plant blooms after 30,000 years in permafrost
Reply #2 - February 21, 2012, 07:14 AM

Yeah. Quite a nifty trick. They'll be on the lookout for other opportunities now, so it'll be interesting to see what they manage to revive next.

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Re: Plant blooms after 30,000 years in permafrost
Reply #3 - February 21, 2012, 07:50 AM

One day they will bring back something dangerous to mankind, and then the plants will have their revenge.

Inhale the good shit, exhale the bullshit.
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Re: Plant blooms after 30,000 years in permafrost
Reply #4 - February 21, 2012, 08:00 AM

Well I don't think we have any reason to be terrified of a narrow-leafed campion. It doesn't look very threatening.

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Re: Plant blooms after 30,000 years in permafrost
Reply #5 - February 21, 2012, 08:35 AM

aww what a pretty lil, flower it matches your pretty lil avatar eyes.
(it's a compliment don't smite me ass)

but I thought the oldest reanimated living thing were frog?

science a wonderfull evolving thing just hope they don't bring a new type of virus etc.
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Re: Plant blooms after 30,000 years in permafrost
Reply #6 - February 21, 2012, 08:42 AM

Quote from: osmanthus on February 21, 2012, 06:56 AM
don't give me any permafrost jokes about cool.

But I will give you a Permafrost song - by Magazine.

And with lines like 'I will drug you and fuck you on the permafrost' it should be right up your street (or back alley).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om0jhPkOwhg
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Re: Plant blooms after 30,000 years in permafrost
Reply #7 - February 21, 2012, 12:45 PM

Quote from: osmanthus on February 21, 2012, 06:56 AM
I thought this was kinda cool, and don't give me any permafrost jokes about cool. Kthnx.

Plant blooms after 30,000 years in permafrost

All I can think of, is 'The Thing'

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Re: Plant blooms after 30,000 years in permafrost
Reply #8 - February 21, 2012, 04:01 PM

that's sooo cool..

ya think it'll grow to be something like..

that would be even more cool!!.. permafrost cool if you ask me!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV9vdUjuWxc
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Re: Plant blooms after 30,000 years in permafrost
Reply #9 - February 21, 2012, 08:02 PM

Quote from: osmanthus on February 21, 2012, 08:00 AM
Well I don't think we have any reason to be terrified of a narrow-leafed campion. It doesn't look very threatening.

(Clicky for piccy!)

You're right.

This thread just totally lost it's cool factor.

I thought we were talking about some beautiful exotic pre historic flower, not something that looks like it came from a UK garden.

Obviously cool they can do shit like this......but give me cool cool.

Inhale the good shit, exhale the bullshit.
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Re: Plant blooms after 30,000 years in permafrost
Reply #10 - February 21, 2012, 08:41 PM

It might carry spores from outer space or Jurassic era plague bacteria though, hopefully.

"we can smell traitors and country haters"

Quote from: arX on May 01, 2011, 03:33 AM
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Re: Plant blooms after 30,000 years in permafrost
Reply #11 - February 21, 2012, 10:14 PM

It wont carry Jurassic era stuffz if it's only 30k years old.

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Re: Plant blooms after 30,000 years in permafrost
Reply #12 - February 21, 2012, 10:16 PM

Mere technicalities.

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Re: Plant blooms after 30,000 years in permafrost
Reply #13 - February 21, 2012, 10:22 PM

Ok so look on the bright side. It undoubtedly carries genes that evolved during or prior to the Jurassic, so it might suddenly mutate into a fifty foot tall triffid with huge teeth n shit.

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Re: Plant blooms after 30,000 years in permafrost
Reply #14 - February 21, 2012, 10:24 PM

Now that's what I'm talking about.

Add it to this http://www.councilofexmuslims.com/index.php?topic=19060.0 and we got a motherfucking movie up in here.

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Re: Plant blooms after 30,000 years in permafrost
Reply #15 - February 21, 2012, 10:43 PM

Quote from: BerberElla on February 21, 2012, 10:16 PM
Mere technicalities.

Thanks blud

"we can smell traitors and country haters"

Quote from: arX on May 01, 2011, 03:33 AM
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Re: Plant blooms after 30,000 years in permafrost
Reply #16 - February 21, 2012, 11:08 PM

Quote from: osmanthus on February 21, 2012, 06:56 AM
I thought this was kinda cool, and don't give me any permafrost jokes about cool. Kthnx.

Cool story bro.

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Re: Plant blooms after 30,000 years in permafrost
Reply #17 - February 23, 2012, 12:04 PM

Quote from: BerberElla on February 21, 2012, 08:02 PM
You're right.

This thread just totally lost it's cool factor.

I thought we were talking about some beautiful exotic pre historic flower, not something that looks like it came from a UK garden.

Obviously cool they can do shit like this......but give me cool cool.

Too much imagination

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