The Permafrost is Melting...and Life Forms are Waking Up

Sound like an episode of the X-Files? It might as well be. After several millennia dozens of ancient viruses, bacteria, plants, and yes, even animals are being 'woken up' after being (naturally) cryogenically frozen. link

For a quick refresher, what the heck is cryofreezing any way? Well, it's a little more than what science fiction makes it out to be. It is a real, natural processes that has unbelievable preservative powers. And the results are stunning. Scientists have had success in the last few years, even bringing and budding flowers that were cryogenically frozen.

Cryogenically frozen organic material acts like an interesting window into the world of the past. But, unlike a window, they're not just for looking out of. Through analyzing these ancient remnants, scientists may be able to learn about how species will cope with change in the future. Not to mention, the melting of the permafrost has helped created a new field of  science: resurrection ecology.

It may even give the ability to recreate evolution and evolutionary processes in years or months instead of thousands of years and millennia. Being able to compare current structures to their permafrost cousins could allow for this to happen.

Not to mention, through this, we may be able to help endangered or near-endangered species gain a genetic upper-hand through the study of evolutionary processes.

This photo comes from Flickr user Gabriel Caparó and is licensed under creative commons.