Feb 22nd, 2012 30,000 Years Old

[Nirvana]

Ice Age Flower, Silene Stenophylla, Becomes Oldest Plant To Be Revived




MOSCOW -- It was an Ice Age squirrel's treasure chamber, a burrow containing fruit and seeds that had been stuck in the Siberian permafrost for over 30,000 years. From the fruit tissues, a team of Russian scientists managed to resurrect an entire plant in a pioneering experiment that paves the way for the revival of other species.

The Silene stenophylla is the oldest plant ever to be regenerated, the researchers said, and it is fertile, producing white flowers and viable seeds.

The experiment proves that permafrost serves as a natural depository for ancient life forms, said the Russian researchers, who published their findings in Tuesday's issue of "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" of the United States.

"We consider it essential to continue permafrost studies in search of an ancient genetic pool, that of pre-existing life, which hypothetically has long since vanished from the earth's surface," the scientists said in the article.

Canadian researchers had earlier regenerated some significantly younger plants from seeds found in burrows.

Svetlana Yashina of the Institute of Cell Biophysics of the Russian Academy Of Sciences, who led the regeneration effort, said the revived plant looked very similar to its modern version, which still grows in the same area in northeastern Siberia.

"It's a very viable plant, and it adapts really well," she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the Russian town of Pushchino where her lab is located.

She voiced hope the team could continue its work and regenerate more plant species.

The Russian research team recovered the fruit after investigating dozens of fossil burrows hidden in ice deposits on the right bank of the lower Kolyma River in northeastern Siberia, the sediments dating back 30,000-32,000 years.


LINK

[Spexxvet]

At that age, I'll bet it's a senile Silene Stenophylla

[Sheldonrs]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

At that age, I'll bet it's a senile Silene Stenophylla

True, but with those larger petals, it's salient, senile Silene Stenophylla.

[ZenGum]

Can it grow in salty conditions?

That would make it a saline salient senile Silene Stenophylla.

[Lamplighter]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

Can it grow in salty conditions?

That would make it a saline salient senile Silene Stenophylla.

If it is floating with a breeze, that would make it a sailing saline salient senile Silene Stenophylla.

Lets hope there's not sixty of them

[Griff]

This is nice but I want a wooly mammoth, preferably a mini.

[Sheldonrs]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

If it is floating with a breeze, that would make it a sailing saline salient senile Silene Stenophylla.

Lets hope there's not sixty of them

If there is any trace of blood from the squirrels on the flowers that would make them sixty sanguine sailing saline salient senile Silene Stenophylla.

[sexobon]

Originally Posted by Sheldonrs

If there is any trace of blood from the squirrels on the flowers that would make them sixty sanguine sailing saline salient senile Silene Stenophylla.

If it's edible, then it would make a sixty sanguine sailing saline salient senile Silene Stenophylla salad. Probably good with Russian dressing.

[ZenGum]

Originally Posted by sexobon

If it's edible, then it would make a sixty sanguine sailing saline salient senile Silene Stenophylla salad. Probably good with Russian dressing.

Add bacon. and ten 10% more flowers.

Sixty-six sanguine sailing saline salient senile Silene Stenophylla ceasar salad.

[sexobon]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

Add bacon. and ten 10% more flowers.

Sixty-six sanguine sailing saline salient senile Silene Stenophylla ceasar salad.

Uh oh, the addition of bacon may cause some people to develop Sixty-six sanguine sailing saline salient senile Silene Stenophylla ceasar salad syndrome.

[Happy Monkey]

When beetles
fight these battles
in a bottle
with their paddles
and the bottle's
on a poodle
and the poodle's
eating noodles...

...they call this
a muddle puddle
tweetle poodle
beetle noodle
bottle paddle battle.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Griff

This is nice but I want a wooly mammoth, preferably a mini.

Did you learn nothing from the goats.

[Sheldonrs]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Did you learn nothing from the goats.

Other than they hate the Daa-aaa-dddy jokes?

[infinite monkey]

And that goats and sheep are not interchangeable?

[Clodfobble]

Of course they aren't; sheep go to heaven, goats go to hell.