Echoing the idea of Lovecraft’s At The Mountains of Madness, an ancient flowering plant has this month been brought back to life from seeds buried by a squirrel more than 30,000 years ago. The seeds were dug out of the fossilised and frozen burrows of ancient Arctic ground-squirrels in Siberia.

“The breakthrough means some early lifeforms, which ‘have long since vanished from the earth’s surface’, could still be held in the frozen wastes. It also suggests that dormant life found on Mars or other icy planets could be revived.”