The mammoths of 40,000 years ago are being dug up, and the scientific community is in a frenzy, but humanity should be vigilant
Mammoth remains were found
Not long ago, in canada's permafrost with a group of miners panning for gold, when digging up the frozen soil, suddenly felt that they had dug up some foreign body, so they rushed to see, and found the carcass of such an animal, thinking that it was the frozen soil layer, these workers were excited, intuition and experience told them that this is definitely the remains of prehistoric animals, more valuable than gold, so they carefully dug out the remains of this animal, when cleaning up the soil, they were surprised to find, It turned out to be an elephant-like animal, and they were even more excited, because they knew that modern elephants were tropical animals, and in the cold northern part of Canada, it was impossible to appear, and the only explanation was that it was the remains of a mammoth.
The remains of mammoth cubs that were dug up
So the workers quickly reported to the company, their company is also the first time to send the animal to the laboratory, when they thawed found that the animal body is intact, because in the permafrost, not rotten, skin and muscles are very elastic, the company also realized the value of the body, so quickly reported to the relevant research department. When the news spread, Canada's top scientists flocked to the body, and they immediately conducted a careful study of the body, and they found that The remains of this animal, which is only 1.4 meters long, is the mammoth, the time of death should be 42,000 years ago, according to their deduction, this is a mammoth cub, and it is a female, born only about a month, probably when it crossed the swamp, trapped, and then suddenly covered with ice and snow, sealed in the permafrost layer, so it will be so well preserved.
Mammoth
The discovery boiled over the scientific community, especially archaeologists, who believed that from the remains of this mammoth that had not decayed, they might open a window into the ecological environment of the earth tens of thousands of years ago, and although many fossils and permafrost remains had been found before, it was the first time that the remains were so well preserved and so fresh. It is conceivable that in the eyes of these scientists, the value of this mammoth is far from being measured by money, and because of this, there are many experts in this field who are rushing there.
Mammoth remains
Compared with the carnival of archaeologists, many climatologists and microbiologists feel that things are not good, they feel that more and more prehistoric animal remains have been found, which is not a good thing, which just shows that the frozen tundra is undergoing abnormal changes, and the thawing of the tundra is unimaginable. Climate experts are worried that global warming is thawing frozen soil, and the organic carbon storage in the frozen soil is 2 times the carbon content in the atmosphere, so the melting of frozen soil will exacerbate global warming, which will be a vicious circle, compared to human energy conservation and emission reduction, the harm caused by frozen soil will be greater.
Scientists and mammoth remains
But this is not the most frightening, microbiologists are worried that these are the excavation of prehistoric animal remains, and the melting of the permafrost layer, which may cause even greater disasters, you know, under the frozen soil, there are not only animal remains but also a large number of ancient viruses. Because of the characteristics of the frozen soil, many organisms are sealed, the virus is the same, but many viruses can survive in the frozen soil layer, once the frozen soil is unsealed, then those ancient viruses are likely to see the light of day, with human understanding and means of the virus, it is impossible to deal with, it is likely to make humans disappear from the earth.
An ancient giant virus discovered in 2014
Some experts said that this is not alarmist, because bacteria and viruses have long been discovered, humans can not deal with it at all, for example, in 2014, in Siberia, a giant virus 30,000 years ago was found, ten times larger than our conventional virus, more importantly, this virus is still alive, and extremely contagious, with the current human technology, it can not be dealt with at all, but fortunately it is properly isolated. Also, in 2016, also in Siberia, an anthrax killed more than 2,000 reindeer and hospitalized 96 people, all because they came into contact with the remains of a prehistoric reindeer found in the permafrost. Although the toxicity is not very strong, and the contagiousness is not very high, who can guarantee that in the GIF, there is no such super ancient virus! You know, we can't even cope with a new coronavirus, at least it's a mess. If those super ancient viruses reappear, where will humanity go?
Ancient virus simulation
Of course, these are all speculations, but it is not impossible! After all, the earth's ecology tens of thousands of years ago must be very different from now, and now there are changes in the permafrost, is it worth our vigilance?