The plant in this picture dates from the Pleistocene Age,
30,000 years ago, before agriculture, before writing, before the end of
the last Ice Age. And while it’s not accurate to say the plant itself
is that old, scientists in Russia say they regenerated it from frozen
cells they found beneath 125 feet of permafrost in what is now
northeastern Siberia.
It was cultivated in the lab, with help from some “clonal
micropropagation,” say the scientists, from seeds and leaves probably
collected by some long-ago species of squirrel. The researchers,
publishing their find today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, say the squirrel’s burrow was probably frozen over quickly, and stayed that way until they discovered it.
“The squirrels dug the frozen ground to build their burrows, which
are about the size of a soccer ball, putting in hay first and then
animal fur for a perfect storage chamber,” said Stanislav Gubin, one of
the authors of the study, who spent years rummaging through the area for
squirrel burrows. “It’s a natural cryobank.”
The plant is of the species Silene stenophylla, and
radiocarbon dating says it is 31,800 years old, plus or minus 300 years.
The Russian scientists report they were able to grow 36 plants in the
lab, and after a year of tender loving care, they say the plants
blossomed, bore fruit, and dropped seeds. They lived, in other words, as
if there had never been a 30,000-year interruption.