1700 virus species found in the Himalayas one of them is 11 thousand years old

Researchers have discovered about 1700 ancient virus species hidden in the snow of the Himalayas. This study has been published in the Nature Geoscience magazine. It says that about three-fourths of the viruses found were not known to scientists. Scientists had taken samples of snow layers from Guliya Glacier located on the Tibetan Plateau. Virus species were found in them. Guliya Glacier is about 6400 meters above sea level. Researchers want to understand how viruses adapt to changes in the weather.

Newsweek’s Report According to Zhiping Zhong, co-author of the study and a scientist associated with Ohio State University, it has never been investigated before how viruses are related to climate change. He said that we do not have such material for research on viruses and microbes, in this case glacier ice is very valuable.

According to the study, the viruses were discovered in 2015. They observed three cold-warm weather cycles in the last 41 thousand years. Scientists also discovered a virus from the samples, which is about 11 thousand 500 years old. At that time the Earth’s climate was changing from cold to hot. We currently live in the same climate.

Scientists have found many other information such as – about a quarter of the viruses overlap with species found in other places. That is, some viruses came from the Middle East or Arctic regions.

After this discovery, researchers believe that they will be able to better predict how viruses will react to climate change in the future. According to another report, such viruses have been detected around the world, including Siberia, which are frozen but have the ability to infect humans.