Nematodes alive after 40,000 years in the ice

Sounds unbelievably long, as even the tardigrades' record endurance in a dormant state was 120 years.

Quote:

Samples of permafrost sediment frozen for the past 40,000 years were recently thawed to reveal living nematodes. Within weeks the roundworms began to move and eat, setting a record for the time an animal can survive cryogenic preservation.... Russian biologists dug up more than 300 samples of frozen soil of different ages and locations throughout the Arctic and took them back to their lab in Moscow for a closer look. Some of the worms – belonging to the genus Panagrolaimus – were found 30 metres (100 feet) underground in what had once been a ground squirrel burrow which caved in and froze over around 32,000 years ago. Others from the genus Plectus were found in a bore sample at a depth of around 3.5 metres (about 11.5 feet). Carbon dating was used to determine that sample to be about 42,000 years old. Contamination can't be ruled out, but the researchers maintain they adhered to strict sterility procedures.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2mNeTHK