Business Insider By Rebecca Cohen and Jenny McGrathÂ
- Scientists revived a 46,000-year-old worm that was frozen in Siberian permafrost.
- When they brought it back to life, the worm started having babies.
- Small worms like this are known to have the ability to shut down biological functions to survive.
Scientists discovered a female microscopic roundworm that has been stuck deep in Siberian permafrost for 46,000 years, The Washington Post reported. When they revived it, the worm started having babies via a process called parthenogenesis, which doesn’t require a mate.
According to a press release, the worm spent thousands of years in a type of dormancy called cryptobiosis. In that state, which can last almost indefinitely, all metabolic processes pause, including “reproduction, development, and repair,” the University of HawaiÊ»i at MÄnoa reported.
In a study published Thursday in the journal PLOS Genetics, scientists reported that after sequencing the worm’s genome, scientists said it belonged to an “undescribed species.”
Previously, Plectus murrayi and Tylenchus polyhypnus nematodes were resurrected from moss and herbarium specimens after a few dozen years, according to Live Science. This new species, however, which scientists have named Panagrolaimus kolymaensis, was dormant for tens of thousands of years longer…
