Worms frozen in permafrost for 42,000 years have come back to life and are eating

Slash Gear ^ | Jul 27, 2018 | Shane McGlaun

[Heartlander]

Worms frozen in permafrost for 42,000 years have come back to life and are eating

Shane McGlaun - Jul 27, 2018

Scientists have made a discovery that is quite mind-blowing. Roundworms found in the permafrost in two areas of Siberia have come back to life in Petri dishes. These worms had been frozen in the permafrost for tens of thousands of years, since the Pleistocene age. Scientists working on the research say that 300 prehistoric worms were analyzed and that these two were shown to contain viable nematodes.

The nematodes showed signs of life after being defrosted. Scientists say the worms started moving and then eating again. One of the worms was discovered in an ancient squirrel burrow in the wall of the Duvanny Yar outcrop in the lower reaches of the Kolyma River. That worm is 32,000 years old.

The other worm was found in the permafrost near Alazeya River in 2015 and is about 41,700 years old. These two nematodes are the oldest living animals on the planet and both are believed to be female. The worms came back to life in a lab at The Institute of Physico-Chemical and Biological Problems of Soil Science.

Scientists say that the ability of the worms to survive tens of thousands of years in cryobiosis under natural conditions of cryoconservation could be a boon to science. These nematodes could have adaptive mechanisms that could be of value in science for things like cryomedicine, cryobiology, and astrobiology.

There were multiple institutions involved in the research including The Institute of Physico-Chemical and Biological Problems of Soil Science; Moscow State University; Pertsov White Sea Biological Station, part of Moscow State University; the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, and Princeton University Department of Geosciences. This reminds me of John Carpenter’s movie “The Thing.”

[Snickering Hound]

[SERKIT]

How soon will they become registered Democrats?

[SpaceBar]

41,700 years sounds like a lot, but is still less time than the continuous habitation by a single tribe of humans of North Sentinal Island in the Andaman Sea.

[Vaquero]

This might portend the development of human hibernation. Though for most part humans, with the exception of the MSM and the DC Swamp, are not worms.

[Sacajaweau]

Wait till you ahs bring a bacteria back to life that wipes out a nation.

[Wilderness Conservative]

They will still continue to vote Dem.

[Wuli]

So, the next question is, whether or not Life can survive frozen on some asteriod, meteor or other space debris, for millions of years, until its host falls to a “habitable” planet?

IF - and it’s a big if - that is possible, it would likely include a space debris large enough that a sizeable chunk survives intact and is not incenerated in the fall; leaving “something” protected inside of it, but no longer frozen.

[Disambiguator]

Cryo me a river.

[EQAndyBuzz]

Nathan Lane cleans up well I see.

[NEMDF]

Sounds like Hillary might have another chance at running for POTUS... Just freeze her for a few thousand years.

[Crucial]

This won’t end well. Mutant worms are trouble.

[jimmygrace]

I will be impressed if they can reproduce.

[grania]

Wasn't this a bad Sci-Fi movie in the 1950s

Probably

[ClearBlueSky]

Betcha Hillary could kill them permanently.

[TADSLOS]

“Ice”

X Files 1-8

[RightGeek]

Since science is filled with phonies these days, I have to ask how we know that they didn’t just substitute some modern day nematodes?

[freedombird]

You beat me due to my lack of HTML skills!!

I was posting this---->

[GreenLanternCorps]

[DungeonMaster]

42,000 years.....Riiiiiiight. {Dr Evil face}

[waterhill]

The Conqueror Worm

By Edgar Allan Poe

Lo! ’t is a gala night

Within the lonesome latter years!

An angel throng, bewinged, bedight

In veils, and drowned in tears,

Sit in a theatre, to see

A play of hopes and fears,

While the orchestra breathes fitfully

The music of the spheres.

Mimes, in the form of God on high,

Mutter and mumble low,

And hither and thither fly—

Mere puppets they, who come and go

At bidding of vast formless things

That shift the scenery to and fro,

Flapping from out their Condor wings

Invisible Wo!

That motley drama—oh, be sure

It shall not be forgot!

With its Phantom chased for evermore

By a crowd that seize it not,

Through a circle that ever returneth in

To the self-same spot,

And much of Madness, and more of Sin,

And Horror the soul of the plot.

But see, amid the mimic rout,

A crawling shape intrude!

A blood-red thing that writhes from out

The scenic solitude!

It writhes!—it writhes!—with mortal pangs

The mimes become its food,

And seraphs sob at vermin fangs

In human gore imbued.

Out—out are the lights—out all!

And, over each quivering form,

The curtain, a funeral pall,

Comes down with the rush of a storm,

While the angels, all pallid and wan,

Uprising, unveiling, affirm

That the play is the tragedy, “Man,”

And its hero, the Conqueror Worm.