After 46,000 Years, Worms Live Again
Talk about a long nap. Scientists said they have revived worms buried in Siberian permafrost for 46,000 years.
The half-dozen creatures, a type of nematode or roundworm, were last awake when Neanderthals and woolly mammoths roamed the Earth. They survived for millennia in permafrost by entering a state of suspended animation, according to a paper published Thursday in the journal PLOS Genetics. Genetic testing suggests the worms are a new and possibly extinct species, researchers said.
“This paper could make people consider this third condition between life and death,” said Teymuras Kurzchalia, co-author of the study and a biologist at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Germany.
Nematodes are among so-called microanimals that can survive extreme conditions including being frozen or deprived of water and oxygen by entering a state called cryptobiosis. In that state, an organism’s metabolism comes to a halt and it stops reproducing, developing and repairing itself. When conditions improve, it can revive.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/its-alive-worms-revived-after-46-000-years-in-siberian-permafrost-96ea3922
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