Scientists Resurrected an Extinct Animal Frozen for 46,000 Years in Siberia (vice.com) 27
Scientists have revived tiny animals called nematodes from a slumber that lasted 46,000 years, reports a new study. From a report: The microscopic animals were successfully woken from a state of suspended animation after researchers found them in the permafrost, or frozen soil, that flanks Siberia's northern Kolyma River. A radiocarbon analysis revealed that they hail from a prehistoric era when Neanderthals and dire wolves still roamed the world, and that they belong to a functionally extinct species called Panagrolaimus kolymaensis that was previously unknown to science.
The astonishing discovery is "important for the understanding of evolutionary processes because generation times could be stretched from days to millennia, and long-term survival of individuals of species can lead to the refoundation of otherwise extinct lineages," according to a study published on Thursday in the journal PLoS Genetics. "Their evolution was literally suspended for 40k years," wrote Philipp Schiffer, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Cologne and a co-author of the study, in an email to Motherboard. "We are now comparing them to species from the same genus, which my team samples around the world," he continued, noting that he is currently conducting fieldwork in the Australian Outback. "Studying their genomes we hope to understand a lot about how these populations became different in the last 40k years."
The astonishing discovery is "important for the understanding of evolutionary processes because generation times could be stretched from days to millennia, and long-term survival of individuals of species can lead to the refoundation of otherwise extinct lineages," according to a study published on Thursday in the journal PLoS Genetics. "Their evolution was literally suspended for 40k years," wrote Philipp Schiffer, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Cologne and a co-author of the study, in an email to Motherboard. "We are now comparing them to species from the same genus, which my team samples around the world," he continued, noting that he is currently conducting fieldwork in the Australian Outback. "Studying their genomes we hope to understand a lot about how these populations became different in the last 40k years."
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Cryo insomnia (Score:2)
With the current climatic changes, I guess they'll have some difficulties finding the necessary "cryo" part, in order to successfully go "back to cryobiosis".
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Welcome (Score:1)
Sooo... (Score:3)
Hm....hopefully they won't find a "new" world without the predators of the past that kept them in check and overtake us....
I'm flashing back to Pink Floyd...
"...and the worms they entered his brain..."
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Survive a trip to Proxima Centauri (Score:2)
Re:Survive a trip to Proxima Centauri (Score:5, Interesting)
> Somebody should check my math, ... Oumuamua clocked in at 324K km/hr.
Not math, but reference frame. Oumuamua seems like it may be galactically stationary with our solar system passing through its station point.
From our perspective the relative velocity was pretty intense, but its apparent motion doesn't neatly fit the transient model. Most of the papers out calling it a comet seem to make silly mistakes.
People speculate it could be a navigational marker, but we can't ever know at our level of technology.
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It was the destroyer the Mayans predicted. It missed because I changed the timeline. You're welcome.
Nematodes (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Nematodes (Score:5, Informative)
Correction: they survived Columbia [space.com]. Challenger didn't re-enter, it was blasted apart in the stratosphere.
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And forever burned into the memory of US school children everywhere that day.
Sounds like an episode of Stargate SG1 (Score:2)
Rules of Sci Fi say Nooooo! (Score:2)
Many B-grade sci fi's start out this way.
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Star Trek II [youtube.com] sighs in disappointment.
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This was exactly the plot of X-Files.
X-Files (not Wormhole Extreme) (Score:2)
This was exactly the plot of X-Files.
This is what I was thinking.
Does this animal resemble Oil in any way?
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Zombie Nematodes! (Score:1)
I, for one, welcome our new zombie nematode overloards
I'm Sure They (Score:2)
DNA damage (Score:1)
It's not Jurassic Park (Score:2)
Welcome to Ice-Age Terrarium!
My Tomatoes! (Score:1)
I just know those nematodes will be end up munching on the roots of my tomato plants.
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They might end up munching on you -- some nematodes infect humans.