30,000 years ago on a planet near you

It looks like there is a Sleeping Beauty, or a Carbon-Trapped Han Solo, in a timeless sleep, after all. But it's a plant, called Silene stenophylla, which Russian scientists have woken up from it's 30,000 year slumber in the Siberian permafrost.

Radioactive dating says the seeds are 32,000 years old, give or take a few hundred. The seeds contain a unique phenotype that is distinct from modern variants of this plant. While the whole story does have a certain fairy-tale charm to it, don't overenthusiastic about a Jurassic Park appearance anytime soon: this new world record in timeless hibernation doesn't compare back to the dating required for the dinosaur age.

/via +Hubert Wagner 

Reshared post from +Stephen Lord

"Russian scientists have grown flowering plants using seeds stored by squirrels 30,000 years ago and preserved by the Siberian permafrost, a new study shows"
And People thought those pesky Squirrels were doin' nuttin'

Read the attached story, it's quite amazing.