The 4.6-Million-Year-Old Bird Skeleton Reappears – A Troubling Sign

Recently, the discovery of a bird skeleton frozen in the permafrost of northeastern Siberia has attracted the attention of scientists. The identification results showed that it was the skeleton of a horned lark, which is 4.6 million years old. According to the scientists, this bird skeleton is well-preserved and retains its ancient genes.

The 4.6-million-year-old bird skeleton has reappeared after being frozen, which has great research value for paleontologists and other related research fields. However, it is not good news for the earth. This is because the bird skeleton tells us that the earth’s permafrost is now slowly thawing.

The reason behind this is the global warming that we are concerned about. Data from the IPCC shows that over the past 130 years, the Earth's average temperature has risen by 0.85 degrees Celsius. It is important to note that this increase is not uniform, and the temperature has risen more significantly in cold regions, especially in the Arctic, such as the Siberian region, where the temperature has risen by more than 3 degrees Celsius. The earth’s permafrost is also thawing as a result.

We call this land that has been in a state of freezing for a long time ‘permafrost’. If this permafrost thaws, what impact will it have on the earth? Let's take a look below.

Permafrost is widely distributed in cold regions of the Earth, accounting for about 25% of the land in the Northern Hemisphere. These frozen soils contain a huge number of ancient organisms (including the horned lark skeleton we discovered this time). We all know that life on Earth is carbon-based life, which means that there are a huge amount of carbon elements frozen in the earth’s permafrost.

Relevant data shows that the carbon content of the earth’s permafrost is at least 1.6 trillion tons, which is 3/1 of the total carbon elements in the Earth’s crust. If the permafrost thaws, these carbon elements will be released into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide and methane, respectively, which will trigger a severe greenhouse effect, which will undoubtedly accelerate the process of global warming.

In addition to a large amount of carbon elements, permafrost also contains many ancient bacteria and viruses. These bacteria and viruses can hibernate in the frozen environment for a long time (some can even exist for hundreds of thousands of years). Once they encounter a suitable environment, they will revive. We don’t know exactly how many bacteria and viruses are frozen in the permafrost, nor do we know what kinds of them are harmful to humans. However, it is undeniable that this is a huge potential threat.

In addition, there is another hidden threat in the permafrost – mercury. Scientists have long believed that mercury circulation in the Arctic will bring more mercury to the region. In 2018, a research team led by American water scientist Paul Schuster conducted in-depth research in the northern area of ​​Alaska. The research results showed that the mercury in the Arctic region is much higher than expected, estimated to be 16.56 million tons, which is twice the total amount of mercury on other parts of the Earth.

Mercury is ‘quicksilver’ that we usually call it. We all know that it is a substance that is harmful to life. It can be imagined that if the permafrost thaws, these mercury may spread through the air or water to the entire ecological environment of the earth, and we humans will also suffer from it.

The good news is that the earth’s permafrost will not suddenly thaw completely, and the earth’s temperature will not rise to an unacceptable level in one night. Relatively speaking, we humans still have enough time. The 4.6-million-year-old horned lark skeleton can be seen as a warning to humanity, reminding us that it is time for us to do something for the future of the earth.

I believe that as an ordinary person on earth, we may not have much ability, but we can try our best to protect the environment and reduce carbon emissions.

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