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WASHINGTON: Scientists have revived a worm that was frozen 46,000 years ago, CNN reported.
The roundworm, of a previously unknown species, survived 40 meters (131.2 feet) below the surface in the Siberian permafrost in a dormant state known as cryptobiosis, according to Teymuras Kurzchalia, professor emeritus at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden and one of the scientists involved in the research, as per CNN.
Kurzchalia explained that organisms in a cryptobiotic state can endure the complete absence of water or oxygen and withstand high temperatures, as well as freezing or extremely salty conditions. They remain in a state ‘between death and life,’ in which their metabolic rates decrease to an undetectable level.
He said: “One can halt life and then start it from the beginning. This a major finding.”Kurzchalia said.
