4 ms·
I'm not a microbiologist but when accounting for evolution, you'd think that a microbe which was locked away in ice for millions of years would be maladapted to
by jondubois 9y ago
I'm not a microbiologist but when accounting for evolution, you'd think that a microbe which was locked away in ice for millions of years would be maladapted to modern animals - Particularly in terms of transmission between hosts.
I would be more afraid of pathogens that were frozen more recently.
- GordonS 9y agoDoesn't this work both ways though, where modern animals would not be well equipped to defend against a microbe that has been locked away for millennia?
- jondubois 9y agoMaybe, but in terms of survival, the onus is on the virus to fit into the new structure of the world not the other way around.
- Fomite 9y agoIt entirely depends on whether or not the various receptors a virus would bind to, acceptable hosts for bacteria, etc. are highly conserved or not.