As the global temperature is rising, a number of glaciers and permafrost are melting, releasing microbes trapped in the icy grip for centuries.
Among them is a roughly 50,000-year-old ‘zombie virus’, which has been revived.
Here are five points on the revived virus:
- The amoeba virus is actually one of 13 outlined in a new study currently in preprint, according to Science Alert. It was found beneath a lake.
- The revived virus has been given the name Pandoravirus yedoma, based on its size and the permafrost soil it has been found in. The study about its discovery has not yet been peer-reviewed but is available on bioRxiv.
- Along with the ‘zombie virus’, mammoth wool and the intestines of a Siberian wolf have also been found beneath permafrost.
- Scientists have been saying that more and more bacteria are being released because rising global temperature has increased the speed at which the swathes of ice are melting. These bacteria could include potentially harmful pathogens, they have warned
- The study is based on a “moderate” warming scenario – where the global temperatures is expected to rise between 2 degrees Celsius and 3 degrees Celsius on average by 2100.