Russians revive Ice Age flower from frozen burrow

AP ^ | 2/20/12 | VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV

[LibWhacker]

MOSCOW (AP) -- 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.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Garden Ping?

[ApplegateRanch]

Close, but no cigar: it’s a white campion, closely related to (& resembles) carnations & pinks—same family; different genus.

Lots of species in each genus.

Phlox is in a totally different family; even though the individual flowers look similar, the total plant is very different.

[Post Toasties]

Actually, what you are afraid of has already happened numerous times, and it doesn't take a species preserved in ice from 30,000 years ago to cause it.

There must be dozens, if not hundreds of instances where species from one continent, say, Asia has been introduced to North America and significantly changed parts of the biosphere, species like the Asian carp which have largely taken over the Great Lakes. Or the zebra mussel from Russia which was introduced into the Great Lakes by ships emptying their bilges.

And how about Dutch Elm Disease and Chestnut blight, both imported tree diseases that have transformed many thousands of square miles of forest?

Then there are invasive species. On my property, buckthorn and honeysuckle plants gone wild are replacing much of the natural undergrowth and inhibiting new tree growth in forested areas as they are over much of the United States.

Virtually all of these invasive species grew elsewhere on earth for tens of thousands to millions of years before being inadvertently introduced to the American biosphere where in many cases they have few or no natural enemies to keep them in check.

[gleeaikin]

Sounds like the impact would be more squirrel food. And if they want something really old, they should try to resurrect the almost 300 million year old forest described and with neat pictures (artists imagination) in this article.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/21/298-million-year-old-forest-unearthed_n_1290578.html?ref=science&ncid=webmail11

[gleeaikin]

It would be nice if we could restore the passenger pigeon. One problem is that they need the stimulus of a large flock to get their reproductive hormones flowing. Might be expensive growing a number from different museum samples for genetic diversity.

[SunkenCiv]

Anything ending in “pigeon” is something we have enough of right now. :’)

[SunkenCiv]

Using this new one to examine the mutation rate (assuming there are descendants that survive) might be a good idea. :’)

[blam]

Neat. Thanks.

[KC_Lion]

"buckthorn and honeysuckle plants gone wild are replacing much of the natural undergrowth and inhibiting new tree growth in forested areas as they are over much of the United States."

I heard that!

I guess even the more reason to be careful introducing Extinct plant (or animal) spices back in the Biosphere.

[exDemMom]

Virtually all of these invasive species grew elsewhere on earth for tens of thousands to millions of years before being inadvertently introduced to the American biosphere where in many cases they have few or no natural enemies to keep them in check.

The state of California is so overgrown with non-native flora that it is difficult to imagine the state's original appearance.