Frozen Siberian worms have been revived, wiggling back to life after an estimated 42,000 years in frigid hibernation.
The prehistoric worms, a pair of nematodes, or roundworms, were separated from about 300 found buried deep under the earth in permafrost, LiveScience reported. The two frozen worms were given a second life at Moscow’s Institute of Physico-Chemical and Biological Problems of Soil Science.
“After being defrosted, the nematodes showed signs of life,” a report from the Russian scientists said, according to the Siberian Times.
One of the worms was discovered in 2015 near the Alazeya River and is estimated to be about 41,700 years old. The second was found in a fossil rodent burrow near the Kolyma River 13 years earlier.
“Our data demonstrate the ability of multicellular organisms to survive long-term (tens of thousands of years) cryobiosis under the conditions of natural cryoconservation,” a report provided to Fox News said.
“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 statement continued.
The worms, both believed to be female, were nurtured back to life in petri dishes that were maintained at a temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit for several weeks, Science Alert reported.
This isn’t the first time prehistoric organisms have been brought back to life. Scientists extracted and brought back to life 250-million-year-old spores from Bacillus bacteria in 2000.
Folks on social media were both excited by and a bit apprehensive about the frozen worms being revived.
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