A 'Jurassic Park' of diseases?

Tuesday, October 28, 2014, 1:49 PM - Scientists have recovered a giant virus from 700-year-old frozen caribou dung.

Recovered by drilling though the ice core from the Selwyn Mountains and obtaining the frozen feces, scientists have now managed to sequence the complete genome of a virus that is at least 700 years old.

The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

DON'T MISS:  Meet coyote—the bounty hunter.

By looking at the DNA of the old virus they determined that it was distantly related to the plant-infecting geminivirus. Once the family of the strand was determined, scientists infected a close relative of tobacco—successfully.

This means they have essentially brought to life a dormant virus.

While initially this sort of research seems potentially dangerous it does offer an important insight: with Arctic ice melting faster and faster, the possibility of ancient viruses being released is possible.

MUST-SEE: Jurassic Park wasn't a great idea but dinosaurs are still hugely important. Find out why below