She doesn’t look a day over 30,000. An ancient worm that lay dormant in Siberian permafrost for millennia has been resuscitated by scientists, according to a paper published Thursday in the journal PLOS Genetics. A small group of microscopic nematodes, originally discovered in a frozen squirrel burrow in 2018, constitutes a new species dubbed Panagrolaimus kolymaensis. Radiocarbon dating of plants inside the burrow suggested the worms may have last been awake during the late Pleistocene period, around the time of the wooly mammoth. Despite the fact that the normal lifespan of this particular roundworm species is between one to two months, the specimens pulled out of the frost are believed to be around 46,000 years old, according to the paper. Of central interest to science is how exactly the microorganisms entered cryptobiosis, or the state of suspended animation that kept them alive until the 21st century. “This paper could make people consider this third condition between life and death,” said Teymuras Kurzchalia, a biologist and co-author of the study.
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