www.sciencealert.com
Does that not suggest that lack of modern exposure means we're also more likely to be susceptible though? I dunno, I'm not a doctor. Not even a wizard.
Well not every virus/pathogen/etc is universally transmittable. So the fact that they are 15000 years old, doesn't mean it was ever capable of actually transferring to humans. For example, if all it is, is some virus that...I dunno, effects mice, well, as @Agema pointed out, the hosts have likely evolved significantly enough, that the virus won't be able to find a viable host.
Turns out Ray Harryhausen was a time traveler from the future trying to warn us, and we didn't listen!
Realistically, how much has evolved in 15,000 years? That's not really a long time. More so, the virus (if it was inert in the ice) wouldn't have been exerting any evolutionary pressure, so there wouldn't be any selection for resistance to it.
Depends on the animal in question. For animals that have a short life cycle, 15,000 years can have significant time for alterations. And we don't need it to be evolutionary changes like "the mice have laser eyes now" just things like "this one enzyme, or chromosome in their DNA, has mutated slightly" or "this particular cell wall, where the virus would attach and spread, is no longer as viable for the virus to catch hold, and take over a cell."
It's not something I know a huge amount about, but I think for humans you're talking hundreds of thousands of years rather than tens (obviously we've got bigger and such in recent times, but that's diet rather than evolution). Malaria is, I assume, a very strong selection pressure given the repercussions of not being malaria-resistant in areas where it's endemic.
Can we literally just not go fucking with this stuff please?Oh YayOy Vey -
Ancient 15,000-Year-Old Viruses Identified in Melting Tibetan Glaciers
Like the start of a horror movie, ancient creatures are emerging from the cold storage of now-melting permafrost: from incredibly preserved extinct megafauna like the woolly rhino, to the 40,000-year-old remains of a giant wolf, and bacteria over 750,000 years old.
Can’t wait to see what escapes from a lab next!
Yes malaria is a strong selection pressure in areas where it is endemic. Mostly in Africa, and it's been reduced to smaller regions within that continent. But, the result of that, is that a significant portion of the black community, is now much more likely to have that particular anemia, compared to other ethnicities. Which outside of malaria plagued areas, is a detriment, but it's still technically a variance in human biology. But again, the process is a very slow thing, that makes tiny changes. It's always happening, but you can only see noticeable changes, on the long scale. But on the shorter scale, internally, any number of changes could've happened that would make the Ice Virus irrelevant. Perhaps it's similar enough to several other strains of virus, that we HAVE adapted to, and thus it doesn't have a good chance of spreading. Maybe it only impacts a certain type of function that isn't really a problem anymore, that we can easily address with medication or whatever.
Ah, I don't think it'll be ancient viruses that end us -- I think the melting permafrost is a good idea of what's likely to end us!
This is how we awaken the ancient weapons, do you want Kaiju destroying the cities? Because this is how we get Kaiju destroying the cities.
As well as the X-Files, Stargate SG1, and the Outer Limits. And probably a few hundred more examples in science fiction.(Though technically, in one or two of those examples they may have been other parasitic organisms discovered in the ice, not viruses).
I'm neither myself, but I'd wager it's likely to be something of a non-issue since viruses already have insanely high mutation rates. So unless it was a really special kind of new... family of virus, it's probably not going to yield especially unique properties compared to what might mutate from virus strains we're already familiar with. Which isn't to say that it can't be dangerous, but I'm guessing it would have the same chances as most equivalent modern day viruses. Devil's in the details though, and I'm just taking a guess here.
