The research team dated the glacier ice to 15,000 years ago and discovered genetic codes for 33 viruses.
Four of those were known to science and at least 28 were novel, or previously unknown.
There’s precedent for the discovery of long-frozen viruses.Scientists famously revived a giant 30,000-year-old virusfound in Siberian permafrost.
That virus targeted only amoebas.
The researchers were able to analyze the ice cores with an “ultra-clean” method that avoided contamination.
This process could one day apply to samples from other worlds, like Mars.
The research has left scientists pondering some big, as-yet-unanswered questions.
What happens when we go from an ice age to a warm period like we’re in now?"
