Report: Scientists revive 1,600-year-old Antarctic moss

Scientists have revived a moss plant that was seemingly lifeless and had been frozen beneath the Antarctic ice since the days of Attila the Hun, according to a study report published Monday in the journal Current Biology.

The simple moss was about 1,600 years old, black and looked dead when it was dug up, the scientists said. But when it was thawed in a British lab's incubator, it grew again.

British Antarctic Survey ecologist Peter Convey said the moss was visibly greening with new shoots after three weeks. He said scientists did not do anything to make it grow, except for squirting it with distilled water.

Convey said this may make scientists rethink definitions of what is “dead” and what's not.  He said this is by far the longest known case of revival of a plant or animal from a frozen limbo.

The Associated Press