“Permafrost” for Russia is not just an incomprehensible phrase, because it occupies more than half of the entire territory of the country, and the views of scientists have not let these lands out of their field of vision for a long time. Such close attention of Russian scientists is not accidental. In the layers of the earth, which do not thaw for many thousands of years, dry cold reigns supreme, providing conditions for the preservation of all living things, be it animals, seeds, fruits or bacteria.
It is in these layers, year after year, that scientists and researchers find one interesting find after another. For example, the last high-profile find was discovered at Cape Sopochnaya Karga, in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, in the summer of 2012. Researchers discovered the carcass of a mammoth that died more than 30 thousand years ago, which helped scientists to confirm the hypothesis that mammoths had a hump, which is a fat store.
Earlier, the staff of the Laboratory of Cryopreservation of Genetic Resources of the Institute of Cell Biophysics of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Laboratory of Soil Cryology of the Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems of Soil Science of the Russian Academy of Sciences managed to extract seeds and fruits of plants dating back more than 30 thousand years.
The seeds of Silene stenophylla have been stored in permafrost all this time and now, reproducing this plant, it is the oldest living organism on the planet.
Permafrost is a source of a huge amount of ancient genetic material and not all researchers and scientists on the planet have such an opportunity, which is why foreign colleagues of Russian scientists are so happy to cooperate on the study of such finds.
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This permafrost is a potential source of genetic material for very ancient species, as well as a natural laboratory for studying the rate of evolution and methods of cryopreservation.
Not everyone has such research opportunities. It is no wonder that "foreign" pundits are happy to cooperate with Russian scientists when it comes to studying "frozen" finds.