The fruit was found in the banks of the Kolmya 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.
Species: Silene stenophylla, the fruits of which grew into healthy plants, but were subtly different from modern individuals of the species
Here’s the full article from BBC News. What would be, and hopefully will, be cool is to examine the genetic differences between the historic specimens of this plant species and modern species today. I’m unsure if any species frozen or fossilised from >30 000 years ago would be able to have its genome fully sequenced and examined today, this may be the first example once it’s done.
