Russia, June 10: Bdelloid rotifers or wheel animals (have wheel-like ring of tiny hair that circles their mouth) are multicellular, microscopic animals. They are capable of surviving extreme conditions such as freezing temperatures and droughts. Researchers have previously found that modern rotifers could be frozen and then revived after ten years. This was due to cryptobiosis, the state of almost completely arrested metabolism.
In a recent study, researchers isolated rotifers that were collected from the Siberian permafrost (permanently frozen soil or rock for years) and found that they were around 24,000 years old. They were thawed (change from frozen to liquid state) and brought back to life.
They immediately began reproducing asexually, through a method called parthenogenesis (reproduction without fertilization), creating clones that were genetically identical. Scientists are yet to study the biological mechanisms that allow the rotifers to survive.
