According to recent research published in the journal PLOS Genetics, scientists have revived a worm that had been frozen in Siberian permafrost for 46,000 years. Scientists from Russia’s Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil found two kinds of microscopic nematode in 2018, both of which appeared to be from an unknown species. Anastasia Shatilovich, a researcher, revived one of the samples with water and then transported the worms to Germany for additional investigation.
Scientists now believe the worms are between 45,839 and 47,769 years old, based on radiocarbon dating from plants found in surrounding permafrost. After analyzing the specimens, they determined that at least one is from an entirely new species, Panagrolaimus kolymaenis. According to Teymuras Kurzchalia of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, who was involved in the research, the worms survived all those years in a state of suspended animation known as cryptobiosis.
“One can halt life and then start it from the beginning. This a major finding,” he told CNN.
“We need to know how species adapted to the extreme through evolution to maybe help species alive today and humans as well,” Philipp Schiffer, of the Institute for Zoology at the University of Cologne, another researcher involved in the research, told The Washington Post.
Skeptical views and potential ancient fragment explanation
Others were skeptical of the groundbreaking discoveries, which would constitute some of the most remarkable examples of cryptobiosis ever seen.
“I would love to believe that the animals they are describing have survived being frozen for 40,000 years in permafrost,” biologist Byron Adams of Brigham Young University told Scientific American. “And if I were a betting man, I would bet that it could happen, and these things are this old.”
However, the scientist acknowledged that he was not confident that the worms were that old, adding that the headline-grabbing result may be an ancient fragment of plant matter discovered at the same time as a modern bacterium.
“I don’t doubt the age of the organic material in the permafrost,” he added. “Those values are likely legit.”
In addition to ancient organisms, the Siberian permafrost, which is now melting amid the climate crisis, contains vast stores of greenhouse gasses, alarming scientists.