A 30,000-year-old frozen virus has been reawakened. This virus has been frozen in the permafrost since the Ice Age. Researchers say that is harmless; however, they warn that Global Warming may revive other life forms that have been frozen for ages.

This virus was named Pithovirus sibericum. It was found at the bottom of a 30 m sample from Chukotka, East Siberia.

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It was found after the discovery of seeds of plants, which were buried about the same time. It was later discovered that these seeds could be grown to produce flowers, the IFLScience reports.

P. sibericum is huge compared to other viruses. Compared to the influenza virus which has eight genes, this virus contains 500 genes.

P. sibericum can be seen in an optical microscope. It is 1.5 μm in size and is comparable to the size of a small bacteria.

This virus resembles the shape of containers used to store food and wine, thus the name pithos. While a majority of viruses step in and use their host's nucleus during reproduction, P. sibericum uses the host's cytoplasm.

It was established that this virus does not infect humans but infects amoeba instead. Amidst this, the Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) has warned its readers on its impact on public health.

CNRS further reiterated that this recent discovery may imply a possibility to revive viruses that were long considered to be eradicated. With the thinning of the ice due to global warming and the recent explorations in the area, scientists fear that this will unleash other harmful microorganisms that have been frozen there for years.

Consider, for example, the smallpox virus which has a similar reproduction process with that of the Pithovirus and has been eradicated approximately 30 years ago.

Scenarios like this may no longer be limited to science fiction and should be viewed realistically, as it could happen in real life.

Tagspithovirus sibericum, 30000-year-old virus revived, Pithovirus from Siberia, giant virus, siberian virus