The survival of life on Earth gives us more and more surprises. A team of scientists from the University of Reading and the British Antarctic Survey (United Kingdom) have managed to revive a moss that had been frozen in the ice of Antarctica for more than 1,500 years.
Mosses are characterized by their ability to survive extreme short-term environmental conditions. Now, thanks to this discovery, their ability to survive for long periods of time has been glimpsed.
The researchers discovered that the moss in question, of the Chorisodontium aciphyllum species, has the ability to survive in the permafrost layers , since when they were extracted the moss was not dead, but inactive. When thawed and placed in an incubator with adequate temperature and light to promote its growth, the ancient moss recovered and generated new shoots in a few weeks . In fact, the surface of the moss extended from 3 to 23 centimeters. Thanks to this, it has become the oldest plant that comes back to life.
“This experiment shows that multicellular organisms, plants in this case, can survive on much longer timescales than previously thought,” says Peter Convey, a co-author of the study.
According to the researchers, these results, which have been published in the journal Current Biology , make science need to rethink and reflect on what is dead and what is not , since here at least it is demonstrated that plant organisms such as moss can reach survive for thousands of years in extreme climatic conditions such as the polar regions.
