According to new research, after spending 24,000 years frozen in Siberia, a microscopic multicellular organism came back to life. Scientists unearthed the animal known as bdelloidea (a rotifer found in fresh water and moist soil) from the Alayeza River in the Russian Arctic.
Once thawed it was able to reproduce asexually, after spending millennia in a state of frozen animation known as cryptobiosis. Based on previous research, it was thought that these microorganisms could survive frozen for up to 10 years. However, a new study published in Current Biology on Monday suggested they could last for thousands of years, if not indefinitely.
The bottom line is that a multicellular organism can freeze and remain as such for thousands of years and then come back to life, the dream of many fiction writers, Stas Malavin, of the Russian Institute for Physicochemical Problems and Biologicals in Soil Sciences. And he added that more research was needed to see how it does this.
The resistance of bdelloid
The scientists who carried out the study frozen and thawed dozens of animals in the laboratory to examine the process. Radiocarbon dating determined that the rotifer specimen was between 23,960 and 24,485 years old. The Bdelloidea are a class of rotifers that can be found in freshwater environments in different parts of the world. The name rotifer comes from Latin (rota, "wheel" and fera, "those who carry").
These creatures are known for their ability to withstand extreme environments. They are one of the most radiation-resistant animals on Earth, according to The New York Times, which reports that they can also live in conditions of low oxygen, starvation, high acidity, and years of dehydration.
Other multicellular organisms that come back to life after thousands of years are also known to exist, including a nematode worm, as well as some plants and mosses.
0 Comments