Frozen Animal Brought Back to Life After 30 Years

I've seen a picture of one of these little creatures before but paid no heed. After reading this article, I've learned what an amazingly hardy and tough critter this little "water bear" is.



I am pasting from the article from this link: news.discovery.com... All emphasis is mine.

The animal in question was a species of tardigrade, a microscopic creature sometimes referred to as a “water bear” that is perhaps the hardiest lifeform on Earth. There are over 1,000 known species, all of which have eight legs and measure between 0.5 and 1.2 mm in length, and they are found more or less everywhere.

As Brian Resnick wrote recently for Vox: “Pick up a piece of moss, and you’ll find tardigrades. In the soil: tardigrades. The ocean: You get it. They live on every continent, in every climate, and in every latitude. Their extreme resilience has allowed them to conquer the entire planet.”

This resilience comes from tardigrades’ ability, when conditions are especially harsh, to enter a state known cryptobiosis (or anabiosis). They achieve this by expelling 95 percent or more of their water, creating proteins and sugars to protect their cells, massively reducing or even suspending their metabolism, and tucking in their heads and legs to form a pill-shaped “tun.”

In tun form, tardigrades can withstand conditions from boiling water to absolute zero, and pressures six times greater than those found in the deepest part of the ocean. In 2007, the European Space Agency even launched a payload of tardigrades in tun form into space; retrieved 10 days later after the satellite returned to Earth, some of the tardigrades came back to life upon rehydration and even went on to reproduce, the first animals to survive the vacuum of space.

If you can read the article, please do. It goes on to tell how they were able to revive a speciman that had been frozen at -20 for 30 years, which not only survived but thrived, even an egg that was found in the frozen moss hatched and laid it's own eggs that successfully hatched.

It makes me wonder what will be found and what might be released when scientists expose some the areas being researched in the deep frozen areas, that have been that way for thousands of years.

a reply to: StoutBroux

Way cool and quite an accomplishment. Now if they could revive larger specimen

Definitely something to keep an eye on. Great post

Actually found a bit more on how hardy the tardigrades are.

Tardigrades ( Water Bears ) live in moss and ferns. They are some of the most amazing animals on Earth. They can survive:
•Temperatures as low as -200 °C (-328 °F) and as high as 151 °C (304 °F);
•Freezing in a block of ice,
•Lack of oxygen,
•Lack of water for as long as decade(s).
•Levels of X-ray radiation 1000x the lethal human dose,
•Most noxious chemicals,
•Boiling alcohol,
•Low pressure of a vacuum; like that of space,
•And high pressure (up to 6x the pressure of the deepest part of the ocean).

www.wikihow.com...(-Water-Bear-)

In fact that site is how to find and care for a pet Tardigrade (even has pictures of how-to) which would be a great project for students.

a reply to: StoutBroux

OH MY GOD LOOK AT THAT THING!
Honestly, I can't stop looking.

Cool article, thanks for posting.

a reply to: StoutBroux
Cool! I wonder if it would survive on Mars.

Heh, the water bear.. .tardigrade (hard-grade organism) is indeed, able to withstand the vacuum of space and incredible radioactivity... some paint huffing biologists have wondered out loud whether it rode a meteorite down to Earth, heh.

If I remember, the latest version of Cosmos featured these critters on one episode... Neil went all googly- eyed over them (well, he's sorta googly eyed all the time).

But man, they are tough, and really cool looking... sorta wish they were eight feet long, instead of microns... sorta.

the European Space Agency even launched a payload of tardigrades in tun form into space; retrieved 10 days later after the satellite returned to Earth, some of the tardigrades came back to life upon rehydration and even went on to reproduce, the first animals to survive the vacuum of space.

I guess this is what scientists do when they get bored. Poor things launched into space to see if they would die or not. lol

Now to "program" them with the ability to lay artificial eggs filled with proteins and DNA into space. Have them aimed at a planet in a habitable zone in another solar system in which when they land and unthaw the building blocks of life on earth can re emerge. After that then they can go about their usual business.

a reply to: Brotherman
You're talking about terraforming, right? Or am I wrong?

a reply to: Skid Mark
I'm talking about a full blown alien invasion. Notice I didn't even consider the possibility much less concerns of life on this unknown other planet in a different solar system in its habitable zone? 😉 You can call it terraforming, I prefer alien invasion, you decide.

a reply to: Brotherman
It sounds sinister. I like it lol. Alien invasion it is then.

a reply to: Skid Mark
I'm thrilled your on board with this. Consider this creature has potential to be technology disguised as biology. I was thinking though, since they can live apparently anywhere what if any benefit do they have to an ecosystem? I mean obviously they use resources in any place to thrive but what benefit do they provide? I am going somewhere with this thought I just dont know exactly where yet.

a reply to: StoutBroux

that pic doesnt look natural, almost robotic

a reply to: DOCHOLIDAZE1

Ikr, it reminds me of something but I can't place it.

a reply to: Brotherman
Well the article says they eat algae. I wonder what else they eat. Dead matter? I'm not sure if they would poop enough to really fertilize anything. I'm not sure what benefit they would provide really.

a reply to: Wide-Eyes

well it look like a certain catipiler but the mouth itself looks way unnatural, almost looks like the mouth piece on vaders mask

a reply to: StoutBroux

What about all the Microscopic space creatures ? They live and thrive in space and reproduce even more here on earth.

a reply to: StoutBroux

i mean...that's cool and all. But water bears are known for this type of thing. They are one of the most hardened life forms on this planet (and cute as all hell, to boot).

What if what we're seeing is actually the space suite of an alien creature? If we could open the suit we'd find the owners, a shriveled, dying race of beings who had at one time controlled the destiny of the universe

-cue spooky music-

a reply to: Skid Mark

I think you may have hit the nail on the head, when you said that they eat algae.

The thing is, without something to keep algae at bay, control its spread, bodies of water, and soils, would have all their oxygen stripped by an over abundance of algae. Tardigrades like the little chap pictured in the OP, are literally responsible for keeping blooms of algae at a reasonable level, preventing oxygen from being taken out of the equation, and promoting therefore, the freedom of water going critters to go about their business without suffocating. That is a pretty astounding feat for such little chaps, and an absolutely vital service to any creature relying on the sea, or what comes out of it, for sustenance. That is, basically every living thing on the surface of the Earth.

If you follow the chain of life out of the ocean, and to the greatest land animals, you find (by a convoluted series of links from species to species) that without the water bear doing its thing, many species existent today would starve.