Researchers from Japan's National Institute of Polar Research have successfully brought a tardigrade back to life after it was frozen for more than 30 years, according to a press release. The microscopic creature, also known as a "water bear" due to its head shape, is one of the most durable creatures on Earth - it is able to withstand freezing, boiling and can be dried to the point of no moisture and still return to equilibrium after being re-exposed to normal living conditions.
The team reports that it examined two tardigrades that were discovered in a sample of moss from the Showa Station in Antarctica in November 1983. At the time of discovery, both of the creatures were put into a freezer and remained there in approximately 20 degrees Celsius. In 2014, the current team retrieved the creatures and tested their ability to survive.
Both of the tardigrades were placed in a warm environment to allow thawing, and each showed signs of life on the first day of exposure. However, while one of the creatures failed to revive, the other began to move in less than a week and after a two-week period of time was thriving as if nothing had ever happened. Not only did it lay eggs that spawned healthy offspring, the team retrieved a tardigrade egg from the original sample of moss and after thawing, and it hatched into a healthy offspring that eventually layed eggs of its own that also hatched healthy offspring.
The findings mark the record number of years for a tardigrade revival post-freezing, with the previous record being nine years. However, the record for any creature is almost 39 years for the nematode. Both of these unique creatures are believed to be able to survive such long periods of time due to their ability to put themselves into cryptobiosis, which halts all of their metabolic processes.
The findings were published in the Dec. 25 issue of Cryobiology.
