In 2018, when Russia defrosted some prehistoric worms for analysis, two came to life. Collected from the permafrost in the Arctic, the two were among 300 defrosted. After thawing out, the worms started moving and eating. One is said to be 32,000 years old, and the other, 41,700 years old.
Robin M. Giblin-Davis, a nematologist and acting director of the University of Florida’s Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center, tells Gizmodo’s Ed Cara that the feat is theoretically possible. He said the worms, if “protected from physical damage that would compromise their structural integrity during their frozen internment, … should be able to revive upon thawing/rehydration,” but cautions that the team’s “ancient samples” could have been contaminated by contemporary organisms.
Although the Russian scientists acknowledge the possibility of such contamination, they believe it is unlikely. The team followed procedures designed to ensure complete sterility, according to the study, and claims that the depth at which the nematodes were buried—100 feet and 15 feet below the surface—eliminates the possibility of inclusion of modern organisms. As Science Alert’s Mike McRae explains, nematodes generally don’t burrow deep into the Siberian permafrost, as seasonal thawing only reaches a depth of about three feet.
This isn’t the first time researchers have purportedly resurrected long-dead organisms; in 2000, a team claimed to have revived 250 million-year-old bacteria, though this extraordinary claim requires more evidence before the scientific community will wholeheartedly accept it. Still, the new announcement, which centers on multicellular organisms rather than single-celled bacteria, marks a significant milestone for scientists. McRae reports that nematodes have previously been revived after 39 years of dormancy, while their close relatives, the tardigrade (or water bear), have been successfully revived after roughly 30 years on ice.
Byron J. Adams, a nematologist at Brigham Young University, tells Gizmodo’s Cara that the researchers’ claims are feasible, but he believes that further testing should be conducted to definitively assess the worms’ age. He is particularly interested in what the ancient worms might reveal about their species’ evolution, noting that “after 40 thousand years, we should expect to detect significant differences in evolutionary divergence between ancient and contemporary populations.”
If proven true, the new findings offer tangible hope for the resurrection of similarly ancient organisms. The return of the woolly mammoth may remain far in the future, but in the meantime, we have two 40,000-year-old roundworms to spark our dreams of a Pleistocene revival.
Credit : Smithsonian
Picture Credit : Google
