A group of Russian scientists is perfectly fit to the film by John carpenter. They claim to have discovered ancient worms-nematodes buried in the Siberian tundra who were able to play, after 32 000 years in permafrost. If this discovery is confirmed, it will be an example of the long survival and return to life from the cold sleep have a complex multicellular organism.
The worms were discovered among more than 300 samples of frozen soil near the river Kolyma in northeast Siberia. Two samples were worms, one is left after the squirrels that died 32,000 years ago and the other from a glacier, which is 40 000 years.
The oldest resurrected life?
After extraction, intact nematodes, the scientists kept the samples at a temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius) in the presence of food in the Petri dish. In the next few weeks, life gradually returned as the worms ate and even made new family members. New worms were separated and survived, too.
The issue of what could or could not be resurrected worms, not worth it, says Robin M. Giblin-Davis, nematodal and Deputy Director, research and education center Fort Lauderdale at the University of Florida.
“It is theoretically possible, if the organisms are protected from physical damage that can disrupt structural integrity during freezing, they should be able to revive after rehydration for very long periods of time.”
At the same time, you need to confirm scientific research. “The biggest problem is the possibility of contamination of ancient samples with modern organisms,” he says.
Scholars themselves recognize the possibility of contamination, but note that this is unlikely. They adhered to strict procedures to ensure complete sterility. And given that samples of ice were buried at a depth of 30 meters, modern nematodes are unlikely to have made it.
The opening of these long-lived creatures would be a record. Ancient bacteria entombed in salt crystals 250 million years ago, presumably, could come back to life, but the oldest recovered animals were returned to life several decades after freezing.
Russian scientists claim that the raised 40000-year-old worms, buried in the ice
Ilya Hel