#permafrost

#permafrost

5 Amazing Finds in Canada's Yukon Permafrost that Provide a Glimpse into the Ice AgeNot much can grow in northwest Canada's permafrost. Like its name, the ground is permanently frozen and supports little life save for moss, lichen and shallow-rooted shrubs—but deep down, the permafrost houses an entirely different kind of "life."The last waves of ancient people from whom today's First Nations groups are descended from traveled to the Yukon at least 15,000 years ago, but tens of thousands of years prior to that, megafauna ruled the Yukon. Permafrost perfectly preserved the bodies of these Ice Age animals that were not scavenged, including DNA, and they make for some awesome findings that you can check out below.

Liquid Blood Found in the Heart of a Prehistoric 42,000-Year-Old Foal Mummy Preserved in Siberian PermafrostThis is the oldest blood in the world, ever!A prehistoric foal mummy was discovered in Siberia. The animal, estimated to be around 42,000 years old, had beautifully preserved internal organs and liquid blood thanks to its favorable burial conditions and the Siberian permafrost. According to Semyon Grigoryev, head of the Mammoth Museum in Yakutsk, the liquid blood was extracted from the animal’s heart vessels. The foal’s excellent condition makes it the best-preserved Ice Age animal ever found in the world.Scientists are now looking forward to cloning the animal to revive its species, the Lenskaya breed, which went extinct a long time ago. “Hopefully, the world will soon meet the clone of the ancient foal who lived 42,000 years ago.” Mickhil Yakovlev, editor of the North-Eastern Federal University’s media said to the press. Image credit: North-Eastern Federal University#paleontology #Lenskaya #foal #mummy #permafrost #siberia #cloning #animals

Frozen 28,000-Year-Old Cave Lion Cub in the Permafrost of the Siberian Arctic was So Well Preserved that it Looked like it was SleepingMammoth tusk hunters digging in the permafrost of the Siberian Arctic made an astonishing discovery of two frozen cave lion cubs from the Ice Age. One was so well preserved that it looked like it was simply sleeping.

Russian Scientist Revived 24,000-Year-Old Zombie Worm Frozen in Arctic PermafrostObviously having never seen any sci-fi monster movies, Russian scientists have revived bdelloid rotifers or microscopic wheel animals that have been frozen for 24,000 years in the Siberian permafrost.Russian scientists at the Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science in Pushchino, Russia, dug down to 11.5 feet (3.5 m) below the surface in Siberia's Alazeya River to a layer of soil that has been frozen since the Pleistocene epoch.There, they found rotifers in a cryptobiotic state. Then, the scientists simply put the organism in a Petri dish filled with suitable medium and watched as the microorganism recovered from their dormancy, started moving and multiplied by creating clones of themselves."Organisms isolated alive from permafrost potentially represent the best models for cryobiology research and could provide valuable clues about the mechanisms that allow those organisms to survive," said lead researcher Stas Malavin to LiveScience. "Those mechanisms could then be tested in cryopreservation experiments with human cells, tissues and organs."#Rotifer #Siberia #permafrost #cryptobiosis