Worms frozen for 46,000 years are alive

重慶 陳海容

科學家在近期的一項研究中稱，盡管過去了數萬年時間，但還是有兩種蠕蟲被成功復活。

Scientists have brought back to life two tiny worms that had been frozen for 46,000 years.The worms found in the fro?zen soil of Siberia are the oldest living ani?mals ever brought back to life after being frozen.

In 2018, scientists from Russia took a dirt sample from deep in the permafrost in Siberia in Russia.Permafrost is a layer of permanently frozen ground that covers much of Siberia.The sample included fro?zen soil from a gopher hole about 130 feet(40 meters) below the surface.The scien?tists discovered two tiny round worms fro?zen in the soil sample.The worms were nematodes (線蟲), so small that they could only be seen with a microscope.

Special tests showed that the soil was extremely old: about 46,000 years old.Even more amazingly, when the worms were slowly thawed (解凍) out, they began to move.They were still alive.Being re?vived after 46,000 years was a new record for any kind of animal.

Both of the thawed worms were fe?males.Before long, they began to have ba?bies.The worms were sent off to Germany to be studied further.Scientists there dis?covered that the ancient worms were a new species of nematode that had not yet been discovered.The scientists decided to name the species Panagrolaimus kolymaensis,because they were found by the Kolyma River in Russia.

The two original frozen nematodes have now died.But they have lots of living relatives.Their babies had babies who had babies, and so on.There have already been over 100 generations since the first two were thawed.Most of the nematodes only live a month or two unless they get frozen.

Reading Check

Why were the ancient worms named Panagrolaimus kolymaensis?

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