>French researchers have reanimated over a dozen prehistoric viruses which have been trapped deep within the Siberian permafrost for nearly 50 million years, according to a pre-print study.
It's fine
>After obtaining seven ancient permafrost samples, scientists from the French National Centre for Scientific Research were able to document 13 never-before-seen viruses that had been lying dormant in the ice, Science Alert reports.
The same researchers found a 30,000-year-old virus in 2014 which was trapped in permafrost. Notably, it was still able to infect organisms. Now, they've beaten their own record with a find that's 48,500 years old, which they named Pandoravirus yedoma, according to Science Alert.
Trust the science™
>The scientists, who called these "zombie viruses" a public health threat, pointed to global warming as an ongoing risk that could result in the release of deadly pathogens from long ago.
"Due to climate warming, irreversibly thawing permafrost is releasing organic matter frozen for up to a million years, most of which decomposes into carbon dioxide and methane, further enhancing the greenhouse effect," the authors wrote. "Part of this organic matter also consists of revived cellular microbes (prokaryotes, unicellular eukaryotes) as well as viruses that remained dormant since prehistorical times."
Global warming strikes again...
>The revived viruses belong to the following sub-types; pandoravirus, cedratvirus, megavirus, pacmanvirus and pithovirus - and are considered "giant" because they are large and easy to spot using light microscopy.
Pandoravirus... With a name like that it's probably nothing more than a stupid box
>>French researchers have reanimated over a dozen prehistoric viruses which have been trapped deep within the Siberian permafrost for nearly 50 million years, according to a pre-print study.
It's fine
>>After obtaining seven ancient permafrost samples, scientists from the French National Centre for Scientific Research were able to document 13 never-before-seen viruses that had been lying dormant in the ice, Science Alert reports.
The same researchers found a 30,000-year-old virus in 2014 which was trapped in permafrost. Notably, it was still able to infect organisms. Now, they've beaten their own record with a find that's 48,500 years old, which they named **Pandoravirus** yedoma, according to Science Alert.
Trust the science™
>>The scientists, who called these "zombie viruses" a public health threat, pointed to **global warming** as an ongoing risk that could result in the release of deadly pathogens from long ago.
"Due to climate warming, irreversibly thawing permafrost is releasing organic matter frozen for up to a million years, most of which decomposes into carbon dioxide and methane, further enhancing the greenhouse effect," the authors wrote. "Part of this organic matter also consists of revived cellular microbes (prokaryotes, unicellular eukaryotes) as well as viruses that remained dormant since prehistorical times."
Global warming strikes again...
>>The revived viruses belong to the following sub-types; pandoravirus, cedratvirus, megavirus, pacmanvirus and pithovirus - and are considered "giant" because they are large and easy to spot using light microscopy.
Pandoravirus... With a name like that it's probably nothing more than a stupid box
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