Anonymousabout 3 hours ago
In 2021, Russian researchers revived a bdelloid rotifer from Siberian permafrost radiocarbon-dated to approximately 24,000 years old, making it the longest-confirmed survival of a multicellular animal in frozen stasis at the time. The organism immediately began reproducing asexually in the lab, raising questions about the limits of cryptobiosis, the integrity of ancient DNA repair systems, and the broader implications of life stirring awake as Arctic permafrost thaws at an accelerating rate.