Remember “Encino Man?” The goofball comedy about Brendan Fraser as a caveman discovered in the ice? As silly as the movie might be, it’s actually based on truth. Of course, the real body that was found didn’t come back to life, but it was found in a block of ice.
The body was discovered in Canada in 1999, and scientists dated the corpse to be between 300-600 years old. Aside from the well-preserved body, the hunters that discovered him also found his walking stick and a fur coat. What’s interesting is that through DNA testing, they were able to find over 15 living relatives of the man in the ice, who had simply been dubbed “Canadian Ice Man.”
Original Bacteria
Bacteria, like any animal, grows and evolves, and it can actually evolve much, much faster. So, scientists probably had a field day when they discovered bacteria specimens in some of the oldest ice that’s known to exist on Earth. They dated the samples back to 8 million years ago. That’s way older than anything else we’ve come across so far!
Unfortunately, for bacteria to survive in an arctic climate like that for so long, it means it’s the type that’s able to spore, which acts like a hibernation mechanism for the unicellular organisms. Scientists now have those samples in a lab. But even if ancient diseases can come back, they aren’t likely to affect modern-day humans very much.
Kermit on Ice
It’s amazing that frogs could survive in arctic and sub-arctic areas, even in the summertime, as you’d think they wouldn’t even be found there. However, they apparently do, as this little guy was found frozen on top of a pond in Canada. He must have gotten trapped when temperatures dropped rather suddenly.
Interestingly, some frogs are able to survive in freezing cold temperatures – as long as they are able to dig down deep enough that the surface temperature won’t kill them, as was the case with this unfortunate amphibian. In North America, there are currently 5 known species of frogs that are able to live through extremely cold winters, but this one obviously wasn’t one of them.
The Team Dig Deep
What could this group of scientists be up to so far away from all civilization? In fact, the story behind this photo is that this group of researchers spent two months at the South Pole on a mission to collect meteorite samples. If you look really closely, you will see the researcher in the maroon jacket holding one of the samples in a pair of pliers.
In the whole two months, this group of scientists gathered an astounding 570 samples of meteorites. This photo was taken at Miller Range on the side of Antarctica, below New Zealand. It is a reminder that ice keeps evidence of all kinds of happenings, including meteor or meteorite showers that have made an impression on the earth’s surface.
Frozen Blade of Grass
Nature has that incredible talent of taking some of the most ordinary things and making them look magical – like they are from some other world. Take, for example, this photo which simply shows a blade of grass and frozen water. And yet, it looks other-worldly. In fact, you would expect to find this in another galaxy.
The ice around the blade of grass forms strange bubbles – giving it the look of insect eggs (which are usually far from looking fantastic). There is beauty to this captured piece of nature, with the blade of grass frozen in this moment of time.