Nearly 1275 Unknown Ancient Viruses Found In Melting Himalayan Ice

Researchers have discovered around 1,700 ancient virus species from the melting glacial ice of the Himalayas.

According to the paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience, around three-quarters (1275) of these viruses were previously unknown to science.

By studying these ancient viruses, researchers now hope to understand how viruses adapt to changes in climate and how the current viruses might change in the coming years.

“Before this work, how viruses linked to large-scale changes in Earth’s climate had remained largely uninvestigated,” study co-author ZhiPing Zhong, a research associate at the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center at The Ohio State University, said in a statement, as per Newsweek.

The researchers said that the viruses, discovered in 2015, came from across “nine-time horizons, spanning three cold-warm cycles over the past 41,000 years”.

Further, the researchers also found that about a quarter of the viruses in the ice core overlapped with species found elsewhere. “That means some of them were potentially transported from areas like the Middle East or even the Arctic,” said Mr Zhong.

This has ignited fears that one of these viruses could infect humans as permafrost and glaciers around the world melt due to climate change. But thankfully, these ancient viruses likely infected bacteria rather than animals or humans, experts said.