By: Connie Cao

When dinosaurs roamed the Earth a Millennial (I don’t think this is an accurate time frame) ago, some roundworms became trapped in permafrost. Forty-six thousand years later, these earthworms have suddenly wriggled back to life, and scientists are trying to find out how and why.

A discovery in a journal by PLOS Genetics describes worms that contain nematodes, a type of roundworms. These worms can survive in harsh conditions for an extended period because of their unique survival mechanism called cryptobiosis. This state is caused by extreme inactivity in response to environmental surroundings. All metabolic procedures stop in this state, preventing reproduction, development, and repair.

“The major take-home message or summary of this discovery is that it is, in principle, possible to stop life for more or less an indefinite time and then restart it,” Temyuras Kurzchalia, a professor emeritus, said.

In 2018, Anastasia Shatilvich, a scientist from RAS in Russia, tried an experiment by freezing two female worms 130 feet in permafrost. These worms were immediately revived when put in water, says a new release from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Germany.

This ground breaking discovery sheds light on the extraordinary survival abilities of roundworms and paves the way for further research and potential applications. Beyond the realm of these tiny organisms, scientists and ecologists are now contemplating the possibility of resurrecting other animals, such as mummified humans, microscopic creatures, and even extinct animals.