'There must be microbes that were on Earth long before Homo sapiens existed,' scientist Birgitta Evengård told Newsweek.
There could be something big lurking in the Earth's permafrost.As the planet continues to warm, scientists fear a host of deadly diseases will be unleashed from the frozen earth, after lying dormant for decades, centuries, and even millennia. The war between Russia and Ukraine has crippled our attempts to prepare ourselves, and the expansion of mining in the polar regions could nudge us even closer to opening this Pandora's Box.
'These ancient viruses may have infected Neanderthal humans or mammoths, causing their extinction,' Claverie said.Over the past 50 years, the Arctic has been warming up to four times faster than the rest of the world, and average permafrost temperatures have been increasing at a rate of roughly 0.6 degrees Fahrenheit per decade, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.However, the thawing permafrost is not Claverie's only health concern.
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