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A team of Russian scientists earlier this month announced, in the journal Doklady Biological Sciences that they discovered ancient nematodes. Worms are said to be able to resurrect after being buried in permafrost for at least 32,000 years.
If this discovery proves legitimate, it would be the longest return that has ever been seen before in a complex, multicellular organism. This might even overshadow the tardigrade, they are also well known for surviving extreme conditions.
Nematodes isolated from Pleistocene permafrost deposits of the Kolyma River plain. Image reproduced with the kind permission of Springer Link
According to a report in Gizmodo worms were removed from frozen ground in the lowlands of Kolyma to the north East of Siberia. More than 300 samples of frozen soil were removed, of which 2 samples contained worms. One of them belonging to the genus Panagrolaimus originated from a buried squirrel burrow that dated back 32,000 years and the other of the genus Plexus originated from a glacier 40 000 years old
The intact nematodes were then isolated and over the next few weeks. the researchers saw twinkling of life. These samples were stored at 20 degrees Celsius (68 Fahrenheit) and were left in a petri dish surrounded by food.
Worms ate food and even developed new members of the family. These newly cloned family members were then grown separately and also thrived.
Contamination of worms can not be ruled out, but researchers say that they have maintained strict procedures for infertility. In addition, the researchers say that it is impossible for new-age nematodes to clear their way to 100 feet and 15 feet down where the ice samples were buried.
Although this is not the first time that organisms have been revived. According to the report in Science Alert scientists extracted spores of Bacillus bacteria that were hidden in salt crystals 250 million years old and brought them back to life
]. Nothing has been seen on a scale like this yet.
Nothing further indicates that these worms pose a danger to the people. But melting permafrost could release pathogens locked in such cold environments for tens of thousands of years.
Let's hope that the melting of the Siberian ice worries us only for these sordid lines
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