Scientists Revive 24,000-Year-Old Animal Found In Siberian Permafrost

Few creatures do naptime like the bdelloid rotifer.

Just add water. Scientists have revived a handful of tiny, multicellular, freshwater creatures known as bdelloid rotifers after they spent 24,000 years frozen in Siberian permafrost. The findings, published Monday in the journal Current Biology, indicate the creatures can survive in a state of crytobiosis — where an animal responds to environmental stresses by essentially drying itself out and entering a dormant state — much longer than previously known. Earlier studies found bdelloid rotifers could survive extreme cold in a cryptobiotic state for at least six to 10 years.