Worms frozen for more than 30,000 years brought back to life
Jul 30, 2018 19:46:39 GMT -5
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Post by Kevin Hamilton on Jul 30, 2018 19:46:39 GMT -5
allthatsinteresting.com/worms-frozen-resurrected
Way cool.
A new report, published this week in Doklady Biological Sciences, revealed that two prehistoric roundworms — one 42,000 years old and another 32,000 years old — were miraculously brought back to life in Petri dishes.
During the study, a team of Russian scientists from four different institutions worked together with researchers from Princeton University’s Department of Geosciences to analyze 300 prehistoric worms and, of those 300, just two “were shown to contain viable nematodes.”
“We have obtained the first data demonstrating the capability of multicellular organisms for longterm cryobiosis in permafrost deposits of the Arctic,” the report stated. Both of the worms were found in permafrost in Yakutia, a frigid region of Russia near Siberia. According to IFLScience, to revive the worms after they were removed from the glacial samples, they were placed in a 20 degree Celsius culture with agar and given E. coli bacteria as food.
“After being defrosted, the nematodes showed signs of life,” the report said. “They started moving and eating.” The researchers believe that this breakthrough is important in the field of cryobiosis and that their findings provide valuable insights into the adaptive abilities of the roundworms. In the journal, the scientists said:
“Our data demonstrates the ability of multicellular organisms to survive long-term (tens of thousands of years) cryobiosis under the conditions of natural cryoconservation. It is obvious that this ability suggests that the Pleistocene nematodes have some adaptive mechanisms that may be of scientific and practical importance for the related fields of science, such as cryomedicine, cryobiology, and astrobiology.”
The worms are now considered to be the oldest living animals on the planet.
During the study, a team of Russian scientists from four different institutions worked together with researchers from Princeton University’s Department of Geosciences to analyze 300 prehistoric worms and, of those 300, just two “were shown to contain viable nematodes.”
“We have obtained the first data demonstrating the capability of multicellular organisms for longterm cryobiosis in permafrost deposits of the Arctic,” the report stated. Both of the worms were found in permafrost in Yakutia, a frigid region of Russia near Siberia. According to IFLScience, to revive the worms after they were removed from the glacial samples, they were placed in a 20 degree Celsius culture with agar and given E. coli bacteria as food.
“After being defrosted, the nematodes showed signs of life,” the report said. “They started moving and eating.” The researchers believe that this breakthrough is important in the field of cryobiosis and that their findings provide valuable insights into the adaptive abilities of the roundworms. In the journal, the scientists said:
“Our data demonstrates the ability of multicellular organisms to survive long-term (tens of thousands of years) cryobiosis under the conditions of natural cryoconservation. It is obvious that this ability suggests that the Pleistocene nematodes have some adaptive mechanisms that may be of scientific and practical importance for the related fields of science, such as cryomedicine, cryobiology, and astrobiology.”
The worms are now considered to be the oldest living animals on the planet.
Way cool.
