New record for oldest living creature - 40,000 years

[MitchM]

Recently Russian scientists and Princeton University have discovered nematodes that have been frozen for 40,000 years, thawed them out and they are alive and well.

https://bgr.com/2018/07/27/frozen-worms-40000-years-old-russia/
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S0012496618030079

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[addy1]

Unreal! thanks for sharing

 

[j.w]

Wow and no I would not like being frozen to come back to this crazy mixed up world. One time around is enough for me,lol!

 

[MitchM]

It's pretty amazing when you think about it.
Contrary to what one famous politician once claimed, science is never settled.
(Al Gore made the claim in his global warming movie that the science was settled on the matter)

One always has to keep an open mind with science, and be ready to change their belief or opinion on subjects as new discoveries are made and new information comes available.

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[MajorDan]

So true, even in my field of mechanical engineering that you would think would be stable, things I was taught in college are now totally changed. You just have to be flexible in your beliefs as new information is discovered that changes old rules. I do like continuous learning, keeps the brain healthy.

 

[GBBUDD]

Al gore spits out about global warming and shame shame to everyone with a carbon footprint yet he lives in beyond a mansion and owns several others. Mother nature will never stop amazing us, of that you can be sure. While on one side it's crazy they just revived something that old and on the flip side it's scary as all hell. Who's to say this worm wasn't responsible for whipping out the dinosaurs." YES I KNOW IT'S AN EXAMPLE" Much like lyme is whipping out the moose in new England. if your unsure as to what I refer google "GHOST MOOSE"

 

[Jack B. Nimble]

A dangerous move in my opinion and we may not be prepared to deal with things long lost. What if they unthaw a bug we can't stop or a bacteria or ? . Do we need a wolly mamath at the zoo or another plague of some sort really ? I think the loss out weighs the gain.

 

[Lisak1]

A dangerous move in my opinion and we may not be prepared to deal with things long lost. What if they unthaw a bug we can't stop or a bacteria or ? . Do we need a wolly mamath at the zoo or another plague of some sort really ? I think the loss out weighs the gain.

Right! HAVE THEY NOT SEEN JURASSIC WORLD?? We need to be very careful what we mess with! Stop cloning and gene mixing and all that other Dr. Frankenstein business - it's scary!

 

[Tara]

The attempted preparation for cloning the woolly mammoth is already underway, and I have to say I would love to see it. Some of the worst plagues are stored in labs for study and research purposes . The most amazing use of bacteria to date for me is Crispr, it is a very interesting read, it was also shown some months ago on 60 minutes. Science seems to always have a case of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

 

[Tara]

Al gore spits out about global warming and shame shame to everyone with a carbon footprint yet he lives in beyond a mansion and owns several others. Mother nature will never stop amazing us, of that you can be sure. While on one side it's crazy they just revived something that old and on the flip side it's scary as all hell. Who's to say this worm wasn't responsible for whipping out the dinosaurs." YES I KNOW IT'S AN EXAMPLE" Much like lyme is whipping out the moose in new England. if your unsure as to what I refer google "GHOST MOOSE"

Just looked up a National Geographic article on ghost moose, it's a very sad, dismal read on how the calves die from ticks overwhelming them. Thanks for mentioning the ghost moose, even though I live in New England, I was unaware of this issue.

 

[GBBUDD]

When I tell people that the average Moose is carrying between 30 and 70 Thousand TICKS that are bitting them and yes I said Thousand 30,000 to 70,000 ticks on one animal. the butchers wont even except a moose for processing unless it has been skinned.MitchM if I am not mistaken it hasn't become that bad of a problem for you folks up in Canada has it?

 

[MitchM]

I haven't heard of them much around here, mainly in the milder climates.
You have to feel for the moose and elk that are infected. It looks like a miserable existance.

 

[GBBUDD]

We have hunters who claim to be responsible thinning the heards. Who Protect them from starving during the winter months. Well I am waiting to see the hunters become true custodians of the wild life and start darting the moose with a Lyme vaccination or even some sort of similar vaccination we use on our dogs I never find a tick on them any more. wouldn't it be nice to see those who love to hunt take an active roll in protecting the species as well as just thinning the heard.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

A dangerous move in my opinion and we may not be prepared to deal with things long lost. What if they unthaw a bug we can't stop or a bacteria or ? . Do we need a wolly mamath at the zoo or another plague of some sort really ? I think the loss out weighs the gain.

I don't think you quite understand the situation. The article is focusing on the longterm stasis of organisms (nematodes) that still exist, not some ancient extinct organisms that they are bringing back to life.
Ancient glaciers and permafrost deposits have been naturally melting for centuries in great quantities and releasing whatever frozen organisms might have been frozen in them. However, this all goes on unseen and undocumented so we've had no idea what is actually emerging from all that unseen ice. All they've done here is taken small samples from a know time period and analyzed it in a controlled environment to see what's actually in it.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

We have hunters who claim to be responsible thinning the heards. Who Protect them from starving during the winter months. Well I am waiting to see the hunters become true custodians of the wild life and start darting the moose with a Lyme vaccination or even some sort of similar vaccination we use on our dogs I never find a tick on them any more. wouldn't it be nice to see those who love to hunt take an active roll in protecting the species as well as just thinning the heard.

Trust me, if they could they would. Heck, I might even get back into hunting if I could be involved in something like that. (I quit hunting because I found I didn't like killing or gutting animals). You'd have to figure out the logistics on how to do that though. For instance, how could you ensure that the same moose didn't get darted too many times by different hunters?
In general, most hunters are not personally conservationists, but the organizations that many of them belong to and the fees they pay for licenses and game tags go towards wildlife conservation and no doubt if there was some program for vaccinating tick-infested moose it would likely be paid for, at least in part, by money that came from hunters.