A Living Time Capsule Shows the Human Mark on Evolution
JAN. 8, 2014
Carl Zimmer, NYT
Imagine you’re a looking for a place to shoot a monster movie. The plot involves animals kept in suspended animation for seven centuries springing back to life. Chances are you wouldn’t pick South Center Lake for your location. The charming 898-acre lake sits on the outskirts of the small town of Lindstrom, Minn., known as America’s Little Sweden. Gothic it’s not.
But in real life, South Center Lake has become the setting for a remarkable resurrection. Scientists have revived shrimp-like animals that have been buried at the bottom of the lake for an estimated 700 years. If this estimate holds up to further testing, they are the oldest animals ever resurrected.
“The time frame is pretty remarkable,” said David M. Post, an evolutionary ecologist at Yale University who was not involved in the research.
What impresses other researchers about the new study, published today in Ecology Letters, is the detailed look it offers at the changes in South Center Lake over the past several centuries. They found that the evolution experienced a major jolt about a century ago, as Europeans transformed the landscape.
(More here.)
Carl Zimmer, NYT
Imagine you’re a looking for a place to shoot a monster movie. The plot involves animals kept in suspended animation for seven centuries springing back to life. Chances are you wouldn’t pick South Center Lake for your location. The charming 898-acre lake sits on the outskirts of the small town of Lindstrom, Minn., known as America’s Little Sweden. Gothic it’s not.
But in real life, South Center Lake has become the setting for a remarkable resurrection. Scientists have revived shrimp-like animals that have been buried at the bottom of the lake for an estimated 700 years. If this estimate holds up to further testing, they are the oldest animals ever resurrected.
“The time frame is pretty remarkable,” said David M. Post, an evolutionary ecologist at Yale University who was not involved in the research.
What impresses other researchers about the new study, published today in Ecology Letters, is the detailed look it offers at the changes in South Center Lake over the past several centuries. They found that the evolution experienced a major jolt about a century ago, as Europeans transformed the landscape.
(More here.)
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