If you have ever seen any of the “Ice Age” movies, you have watched the spunk little squirrel wreak all kinds of havoc while chasing his nut around. Well, it isn’t so much havoc, but it’s the same type of activity that led to this discovery of a plant that’s more than 30,000 years old.
Scientists found seeds of the ancient flowering plant, Silene stenophylla, near the Kolyma River in Siberia. They believe they were buried there by a squirrel during the Ice Age. After they were removed from the ice, researchers were able to grow more of the plants.
A Box Full of Jewels
Treasure chests buried in mysterious places just seem like part of fictional stories and movies that we see about pirates. But as they say, art imitates life, and those stories are actually based on truth. Not many of the discoveries were found frozen, however. In 2013, a mountain climber who’d been exploring Mont Blanc strolled into the local police station and set a box of treasure down on the counter.
As it turns out, the inside contained over $300,000 worth of sapphires, rubies, and emeralds. The treasure is thought to have fallen out of a plane crash in the mid-1960s.
The Initiative
After researchers discovered that it was possible to bring the plant species back to life, they imagined endless possibilities. In fact, some of the world’s greatest minds believe that seeds can save the future of humanity in the case of an extinction-level event.
Bill Gates and his ex-wife are one of many prominent couples who contribute funding to The Norwegian Initiative, which is essentially an enormous bunker with almost 1 million different types of seeds just waiting to be regrown if they actually need to be. The vault is located deep in the Arctic, between Norway and the North Pole.
An Ice Wall of Soldiers
In Antarctica, it's common to see ice walls of naturally sculptured ice. It's a truly breathtaking sight. In this photo, the wall almost looks like a line of soldiers standing and waiting for orders from the gods of nature. Beyond the confines of this image, the ice wall stretches very far.
This particular structure has been shaped over centuries by freezing temperatures and strong winds. Ice sculptures take many different forms, displaying a variety of textures and patterns. This is just another example of nature in all of its beauty and how we need to protect it at all costs.
This Dinosaur Fish Graveyard
A melting glacier in Chile revealed an entire graveyard of ichthyosaurs (fish lizards,) which lived on Earth about 90 million – 250 million years ago during the Mesozoic period. Fish lizards are known to have been incredibly quick swimmers who killed their prey (eels and other fish) by biting into them with their 100+ razor-sharp teeth.
Scientists discovered dozens of the creature underneath the melted ice, each of which was somewhere between 10 and 16 feet long, fully grown. So, they were basically like huge crocodiles who lived entirely under the water. Some of these ancient creatures are pretty terrifying.