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View Full Version : 1,500-Year-Old Antarctic Moss Brought Back to Life



skywizard
18th March 2014, 15:29
http://i.livescience.com/images/i/000/063/752/i620/moss1.JPG?1395071277
Moss growing on Signy Island offshore of Antarctica.

Moss frozen on an Antarctic island for more than 1,500 years was brought back to life in a British laboratory, researchers report.

The verdant growth marks the first time a plant has been resurrected after such a long freeze, the researchers said. "This is the very first instance we have of any plant or animal surviving for more than a couple of decades," said study co-author Peter Convey, an ecologist with the British Antarctic Survey.

There is potential for even longer cryopreservation, or survival by freezing, if mosses are blanketed by glaciers during a long ice age, the researchers think. Antarctica's oldest frozen mosses date back more than 5,000 years.

The findings were published today (March 17) in the journal Current Biology.


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