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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Mount Everest’s harsh heights shelter a rich array of life

Scraps of DNA show that living things of all kinds thrive in the thin air above 4,000 metres.
A Tibetan Snowcock is sitting on the rocky terrain of Mount Everest.

The Tibetan snowcock lives at very high altitudes, including on Mount Everest. Credit: Menno Boermans/Aurora Photos/Cavan Images/Alamy

The bleak slopes of Mount Everest harbour an impressive wealth of biodiversity, according to DNA shed by the residents of the world’s tallest mountain1.

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Nature 608, 651 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-02195-9

References

  1. Lim, M. C. W. et al. iScience https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.104848 (2022).

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