Paleovirology
Paleovirology is like being a detective for really old viruses. You know how sometimes you play detective and try to find clues like fingerprints, footprints and hair, well scientists do the same thing with viruses that lived a really, really long time ago.
They look for clues in the DNA of things that are alive now, like animals and plants, to figure out if there were viruses that lived a long time ago that don't exist anymore. This is called retrovirus insertion, which is like a puzzle piece that came from a virus a long, long time ago and got stuck into the DNA of the plant or animal. And scientists can use these pieces to figure out what the virus might have looked like and what it was like back then.
This helps scientists learn more about the history of viruses and how they have evolved over time. It's kind of like reading a history book, but instead of reading about people and events, you're reading about tiny viruses that lived long before humans even existed.
They look for clues in the DNA of things that are alive now, like animals and plants, to figure out if there were viruses that lived a long time ago that don't exist anymore. This is called retrovirus insertion, which is like a puzzle piece that came from a virus a long, long time ago and got stuck into the DNA of the plant or animal. And scientists can use these pieces to figure out what the virus might have looked like and what it was like back then.
This helps scientists learn more about the history of viruses and how they have evolved over time. It's kind of like reading a history book, but instead of reading about people and events, you're reading about tiny viruses that lived long before humans even existed.
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