Very Old Seeds

Don't be concerned. But it's not all bad news: there are some interesting things waiting for them to uncover beneath the permafrost, such as the oldest seeds ever used to grow a plant. The scenario may sound like something out of an Ice Age movie, but 32,000 years ago, an ancient squirrel was preparing for hibernation and had gathered a hoard of Siberian plant Silene stenophylla seeds. The squirrel's entire burrow was then buried under snow and imprisoned in ice for thousands of years. That is, until Russian scientists from the Institute of Cell Biophysics identified it a few years ago.

The scientists sought to explore if they could grow plants from 32,000-year-old seeds after discovering that some of them still contained viable plant material when researching the frozen seeds. Keep in mind that the world record for the oldest plant material brought back to life at the time was just 2,000 years old, yet they were successful in bringing back an ancient form of Silene stenophylla that was comparable to the present plant except for the flower shape.

Founded: 32,000 years ago
Location: Siberia