I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords! Scientists manage to revive worms that were frozen in the Siberian permafrost for up to 42,000 years

The Siberian permafrost is famous for preserving the remains of life from the Pleistocene period, but it's really outdone itself this time. Two worms frozen for around 40,000 years have now been thawed and revived, making them the oldest living creatures on the planet and the first multicellular organisms to have survived such long-term cryobiosis.

After gathering and analyzing over 300 samples of permafrost deposits, the team found that two of them contained viable specimens of soil nematodes (worms). One of these samples was taken from a ground squirrel burrow in the Duvanny Yar outcrop, which has previously been radiocarbon dated to about 32,000 years. The second sample was a drilled ice core from a glacial deposit near the Alazeya River, which corresponds to around 41,700 years of age.

After years of sitting in cold storage in a lab at -20° C (-4° F), the samples were defrosted in a Petri dish with an enrichment culture to promote their growth. They were warmed at 20° C (68° F) for a few weeks and sure enough, the nematodes began to move again, as well as chowing down on E. coli that had been added as a food source. Nom nom nom...

Now, what could possibly go wrong? ;0)

www.newatlas.com