Moscow:
A microscopic organism has wriggled back to life and reproduced asexually right after lying frozen in the vast permafrost lands of northeastern Siberia for 24,000 years.
Russian scientists identified the tiny, ancient animal known as the bdelloid rotifer in soil taken from the river Alazeya in Russia’s area of Yakutia in the far north.
The bdelloid rotifer, a multicellular organism identified in freshwater habitats across the world, is recognized to be in a position to withstand intense cold.
Previous study recommended it could survive for a decade when frozen at -20 degrees Celsius.
This new case, which was detailed in a study in the journal Current Biology, is by far the creature’s longest recorded survival period in a frozen state.
The organism was recovered from samples taken 3.5 metres beneath ground. The material was dated from involving 23,960 and 24,485 years ago, the study stated.
Land encased in permafrost – exactly where the ground is frozen all year round – has for years thrown up startling scientific discoveries.
Scientists earlier revived microscopic worms known as nematodes from sediment in two areas in northern Siberia that had been dated more than 30,000 years old.
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