Microscopic creatures broke the record for surviving in a frozen state
Microscopic creatures broke the record for surviving in a frozen state
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Animals kept frozen for more than 30 years have been successfully brought back to life. According to a new paper published in the journal Cryobiology, In 1983 in Antarctica The 1mm long tardigrades were collected from a frozen moss sample.

The 8 legged, segmented critters have been stored at -4F for just over 30 years by Japan’s National Institute of Polar Research.

In early 2014, They thawed and revived two of the animals, which are also known as water bears or moss piglets.

One of them died 20 days into the experiment, reports the BBC. But its companion survived and managed to reproduce with a third tardigrade that had been hatched from a frozen egg. It went on to lay 19 eggs, of which 14 survived.

The previous record for tardigrades surviving extreme cold was eight years.

“The present study extends the known length of long-term survival in tardigrade species considerably,” researchers said.

Lead researcher Megumu Tsujimoto said the team now wants to “unravel the mechanism for long-term survival by looking into damage to tardigrades’ DNA and their ability to repair it.”

However, the nematode worm - which managed 39 years in deep freeze before being revived.

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