Permafrost thaw sparks fear of 'gold rush' for mammoth ivory

Prospectors in Russia dig up remains of extinct animals for trade worth an estimated £40m a year

Andrew Roth in Moscow

Sun 14 Jul 2019 10.43 BSTLast modified on Mon 15 Jul 2019 00.50 BST

Activists and officials in northern Russia have warned of a “gold rush” for mammoth ivory as prospectors dig up tusks and other woolly mammoth remains that can net a small fortune on the rapacious Chinese market.

Melting permafrost from global heating has made it easier for locals to retrieve the remains of woolly mammoths, which have been extinct for thousands of years, and sell them on to China, where the ivory is fashioned into jewellery, trinkets, knives, and other decorations.

Woolly mammoth ivory preserved in the permafrost in Russia’s Yakutia region make up 80% of Russia’s trade in a largely unregulated market worth as much as £40m each year, according to Russian officials.

“The process of harvesting mammoth remains needs to be regulated,” said Vladimir Prokopyev, a regional official in Yakutia who has warned about the dangers that the business poses for locals. Local officials have warned that large business interests or an outright ban on harvesting mammoth remains could disenfranchise locals, who should have the right to collect a limited amount of tusks and live off the proceeds.

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700,000-Year-Old Horse Found in Yukon Permafrost Yields Oldest DNA Ever Decoded

Posted on November 19, 2013 • Updated February 23, 2017 —by Blake de Pastino

The frozen remains of a horse more than half a million years old have reluctantly given up their genetic secrets, providing scientists with the oldest DNA ever sequenced. 

The horse was discovered in 2003 in the ancient permafrost of Canada’s west-central Yukon Territory, not far from the Alaskan border. 

And although the animal was dated to between 560,000 and 780,000 years old, an international team of researchers was able to use a new combination of techniques to decipher its genetic code. 

Among the team’s findings is that the genus Equus — which includes all horses, donkeys, and zebras — dates back more than 4 million years, twice as long ago as scientists had previously believed. 

“When we started the project, everyone — including us, to be honest — thought it was impossible,” said Dr. Ludovic Orlando of the University of Copenhagen, who coordinated the research, in a statement to Western Digs. 

“And it was to some extent, with the methods available by then. So it’s clearly methodological advances that made this possible.” 

Orlando and his colleagues published their findings this summer in the journal Nature; he discussed them today in a lecture at The Royal Society, London. 

Previous to this, the oldest genome ever sequenced was of a 120,000-year-old polar bear — no small feat considering that the half-life of a DNA molecule is estimated to be about 521 years. 

By this reckoning, even under the best conditions, DNA could remain intact for no more than 6.8 million years. 

But Orlando’s team was able to make the most of what they had for a number of reasons, he said. 

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Frozen moss buried in Antarctica for more than 1,500 years starting to grow again in laboratory

STEVE CONNOR

Monday 17 March 2014

Frozen moss that had been buried in the Antarctic permafrost for more than 1,500 years and showed no sign of life has started to grow again in a laboratory, scientists said.

The moss last grew before the rise of the Roman Empire but its long period of being frozen solid in the ground did not appear to affect its ability to regenerate itself once it was defrosted, the researchers found.

It is the longest period of time that frozen plants have been able to survive. Previously, moss was known to survive being frozen for about 20 years – surviving for a millennium or more suggests the plants may be able to survive an ice age, scientists said.

Samples of the plant were recovered from Signy Island in Antarctica by drilling into a frozen bank of moss that scientists estimated to be at least 2,000 years old. Carbon dating suggested the samples were at least 1,530 years old.

When the moss samples were carefully thawed out in the laboratory, the plants began to grow again from their existing shoots or rhizoids, said Peter Convey of the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge.

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Ice To See You: 30,000-Year-Old Flower Revived (via Simon Reames) update from earlier post

Fruit and seeds hidden in an Ice Age squirrel's burrow in Siberian permafrost have been resurrected into a flower by Russian scientists.

Using a pioneering experiment, the Sylene stenophylla has become the oldest plant ever to be regrown and it is fertile, producing white flowers and viable seeds.

The seeds date back 30,000 to 32,000 years and raise hopes that iconic Ice Age mammals like the woolly mammoth could also eventually be resurrected.

The researchers, who published their findings in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the US, said the results prove that permafrost serves a natural depository for ancient life forms.

"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.

For photo of flower:  http://news.sky.com/home/strange-news/article/16174136

Ancient plants back to life after 30,000 frozen years

Scientists in Russia have grown plants from fruit stored away in permafrost by squirrels over 30,000 years ago.

The fruit was found in the banks of the Kolyma River in Siberia, a top site for people looking for mammoth bones.

The Institute of Cell Biophysics team raised plants of Silene stenophylla - of the campion family - from the fruit.

Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), they note this is the oldest plant material by far to have been brought to life.

Prior to this, the record lay with date palm seeds stored for 2,000 years at Masada in Israel.

The leader of the research team, Professor David Gilichinsky, died a few days before his paper was published.

In it, he and his colleagues describe finding about 70 squirrel hibernation burrows in the river bank.

Read on :  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17100574