Revitalizing frozen moss 400 years

After four centuries of immobile nature in a refrigerator, ancient plants once again awakened thanks to the work of Canadian experts.

Dr. Catherine La Farge and colleagues at the University of Alberta found a kind of moss after the melting Tear Drop glacier on Ellesmere Island in Canada's Arctic Islands.

400-year-old moss - (Photo: University of Alberta)

According to a report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , the 400-year-old moss pattern is growing well in laboratory conditions.

Researchers say the revival of a seemingly destroyed plant shows that the ecosystems on Earth still recover after years of freezing.

The ice blocks on Ellsmere Island retreated from 3 to 4 meters per year, and suddenly exposed the vegetation buried since the Ice Age was short, which took place between 1550 and 1850.

The findings open new hopes for ecological experts. While biodiversity is declining at an alarming rate globally, the sleeping world under the ice shelf can provide an extremely important gene store.