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Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life

siberiantimes.com

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Re: Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life

#111

Post by pbhjpbhj »

rossdavidh wrote: post #9
Demiurge wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I found a pretty legit article actually naming researchers and having better pictures, but it says 30 000 years. Says the paper about this is published in presumably Russian journal 'Doklady Biological Sciences' and there were collaborators in Princeton. https://news.rambler.ru/other/40414227-chervi-s-kolymy-prish...

The OP article mentions two worms, one from around 30,000 years ago and the other from around 42,000.

Dated how, because normally you date permafrost on the layers, but worms by their nature move. Perhaps they're (much) younger but burrowed down?

Re: Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life

#112

Post by Eit4Choh »

marzell wrote: post #26

For anyone wondering about previous precedents for reviving frozen multicellular creatures, here's my response to a now-deleted comment: There are shorter-term examples of frogs [0] (up to a few years) and tardigrades [1] (30 years) but I haven't heard of anything on this timescale before. [0] http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-alaskan-... [1] https://www.theverge.com/2016/1/18/10785002/water-bear-ta…

> multicellular creatures

Then plants also qualify.

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/02/120221-olde...

Re: Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life

#113

Post by dredmorbius »

vkou wrote: post #67
dredmorbius wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spores in amber and salt deposits have been revived after 40 and 240 million years, respectively. There are colonial organisms over 40,000 years old. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest-living_organis... http://www.sciencemag.org/content/268/5213/1060 http://www.extremescience.com/OldestLivingThing.htm

There are many reasons to doubt that the '240 million year old bacteria' were actually 240 million years old. https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/18/6/1143/1046940

True, though even without those, we're well past 42,000 years.

Re: Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life

#116

Post by tim333 »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #111
rossdavidh wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The OP article mentions two worms, one from around 30,000 years ago and the other from around 42,000.

Dated how, because normally you date permafrost on the layers, but worms by their nature move. Perhaps they're (much) younger but burrowed down?

I was wondering that. It seems a more likely hypothesis unless they have some good way of dating them. Maybe carbon date the worm body?

Edit - the paper says

>Some factors prevent the opportunity for nematodes to penetrate into permafrost strata many meters deep from the superposed modern tundra soil. The depth of seasonal thawing in the regions under study is up to 80 cm and was no more than 1.5 m even about 9000 years ago, during the Holocene Thermal Maximum.

and the samples were 30m down so they are arguing the worms couldn't make it though they have only carbon dated the general soil samples and not the worm bodies.

Re: Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life

#117

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

sAbakumoff wrote: post #99

Also, reminds old x-files episode https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_(The_X-Files) Hope mass rage has not started yet in Siberia.

Me too, which reminds me, I really need to re-watch all of them one of these days.

Re: Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life

#118

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

mesozoic wrote: post #12

Wow I bet those worms are so confused. Imagine when they showed them smart phones! Probably like that movie Encino man (when do we get Encino man 2?)

Ah, the school summer holidays. Such an exciting time for HN comments.

Re: Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life

#119

Post by zaarn »

scandox wrote: post #102
larrykwg wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

translates more like "bear animal" actually

Tierchen is surely cuter than just Animal? Like maybe like critter or beastie?

Yes.

"Tier" would be an animal of sorts. "chen" is a common suffix for cutiefying something or indicate it's small (and adorable).

"Tierchen" would be a cute animal, usually a small one too.

The suffixes "-lein" und "-erl" function similarly but have been largely replaced in common german (though in southern germany, both are alive and well)

Re: Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life

#120

Post by 10cxyy »

mcv wrote: post #20

> Some 300 prehistoric worms were analysed - and two ‘were shown to contain viable nematodes’. This sounds like 300 non-nematode worms were examined, and two of them contained viable nematodes as parasites. Is that correct? Because everything else in the article sounds like the nematodes are the worms, rather than were in the worms. It's a tiny detail, but it's bugging me.

What is worrying me is that nematodes are supposed to be killed by shock frosting fish for 24h.

I thought shock frosting meant -18°C.

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