Russian scientists have managed to grow a small plant from a seed that was found in layers of permafrost. Their findings, biologists from the Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Sciences published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Silene angustifolia - alive 30,000 years

According to them, this seed of about 30 thousand years. The plant - Silene angustifolia - widespread in the territory of Yakutia, and in our days. The studies were conducted under the direction of Doctor of geological-mineralogical sciences Gilichinsky David, head of Laboratory of Cryobiology. The scientist died two days before the article was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The earliest seeds that could sprout up so far - the date palm seeds, saved the Jewish defenders of the fortress in Israel, Mossad - were aged about 2000 years. A group of Russian biologists engaged in studying the remains of plants found in the permafrost at a depth of 38 meters in the Magadan oblasti.Na Kolyma river beds are often found with deposits of frozen plants belonging to the late Pleistocene period - approximately 40-25 thousand years ago.

Angustifolia Silene (Silene stenophylla) - low-growing shrub, many years - is growing in Yakutia and is highly resistant to deep cooling. The seeds are preserved in the frozen nests of ancient proteins that are settled in their homes from the stems campion. Group cryobiologists Pushchino near Moscow managed to get several thawed immature seeds campion full shoots. They were transplanted into the soil. Thus, the Russian researchers were able to resurrect the first plant, whose seeds had lain tens of thousands of years in permafrost.