Tuesday 28 February 2012

32,000-year-old plant

Silene stenophylla (Image by Yashina et al. via PNAS)
Heres another interesting story courtesy of Sally. The New York Times reports that Russian scientists have regenerated a specimen of the arctic narrow-leafed campion (Silene stenophylla) from seed dated at 32,000 years old.  The seeds were collected by a squirrel in the late Pleistocene, hoarded and subsequently entombed in ice.

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