Scientists Revive 24,000-Year-Old Frozen Creature

Bright Side

Imagine something frozen for 24,000 years suddenly coming back to life. 🧊🧬 Sounds like science fiction, right? But scientists have actually revived a tiny creature from the Siberian permafrost that lived during the Ice Age—and it’s alive and moving today. This real-life sci-fi moment opens up wild questions about life, survival, and what else might be hiding beneath the ice. Could this be the key to understanding ancient biology—or something even bigger? Watch now to uncover the chilling and fascinating truth behind this frozen time traveler.  Credit: Comment by Alexey Shalfeyev on [BrightSide-Scientists Found a Frozen Lifeform After 24,000 Years… And Brought It Back to Life!] Animation production Mikrofoto.de-Raedertier: By Frank Fox, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mikrofoto.de-Raedertier-14.jpg Pulchritia dorsicornuta: By Luo Y, Segers H, CC BY 3.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pulchritia_dorsicornuta_-_ZooKeys-342-001-g001.jpg Animation is created by Bright Side. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV  Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Our Social Media:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightplanet/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en   Stock materials (photos, footages and other):  https://www.depositphotos.com  https://www.shutterstock.com  https://www.eastnews.ru  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

Transcript

00:00In 2021, while drilling about 11 feet beneath the surface of permafrost in northeastern Siberia,

00:07researchers uncovered a 24,000-year-old frozen life form.

00:12And then, they brought it to life, before cloning it, or better said, it cloned itself.

00:20This might sound like the beginning of a sinister horror story, but don't worry, it's actually quite the opposite.

00:26What scientists unearthed was a microscopic frozen organism that could fundamentally reshape what we think about evolution and survival.

00:35The uncovered tiny creatures are called bedelloid rotifers,

00:40microscopic animals with little wheel-like mouths that they use both for moving and feeding.

00:46They were first discovered in 1696 and are fairly common in freshwater environments around the world, with a few saltwater species.

00:54They might seem unremarkable, but scientists have been studying them since early microscopes made it possible to actually see them.

01:01Because even though there are only a few dozen microns wide, they're surprisingly complex, with brains, guts, muscles, and reproductive systems.

01:12Could it be that within that complexity lies the secret to ultimate resilience?

01:17Maybe even for us humans?

01:20Let's break it down.

01:21These creatures are extremophiles.

01:24That means they can survive being completely drained of water at any point in their life cycle, then lie dormant until rehydrated.

01:32But that's not all.

01:34They can also persevere through some of the harshest conditions on Earth, or in outer space,

01:39or even being stuck in the Siberian permafrost wasteland for tens of thousands of years.

01:46This is possible because they can enter cryptobiosis, a condition where organisms pause their metabolism and become nearly inactive.

01:55It may sound science-y, but actually, some of the everyday products we eat are stored in a fridge thanks to this phenomenon.

02:04Take yeast, for example.

02:06Live yeast cells are surrounded by a protective layer made of dead cells and some nutrients.

02:11You can keep yeast at room temperature, but if cryptobiosis comes into play in the form of your fridge or freezer, it stores much better and longer.

02:22During cryptobiosis, rotifers accumulate protective compounds like chaperone proteins, which help them repair and recover once favorable conditions return.

02:34Chaperone proteins are like tiny bodyguards.

02:38Their job is to keep other proteins in the cell from falling apart under pressure.

02:42When the body is stressed, whether from heat, cold, toxins, dehydration, or just the natural aging process, the proteins inside our cells can start to misfold.

02:54Proteins need to be folded into very specific shapes to function properly, and when that structure breaks down, they become useless, or worse, harmful.

03:04Misfolded proteins can pile up and interfere with normal cell function.

03:08In some cases, they clump together in ways that poison the cell.

03:13This kind of damage is even linked to serious health conditions.

03:18So, if rotifers have developed powerful proteins that prevent cellular chaos even under extreme conditions,

03:25could we use them to protect human cells from diseases and aging?

03:29By analyzing the age of the ice they were found in, scientists figured out that these frozen rotifers were at least 24,000 years old.

03:40That's a huge leap from earlier studies, which showed they could survive frozen for only about 10 years.

03:47Now, that's what you call record-breaking.

03:49This period of Earth's history is known as the Late Pleistocene Epoch, a time dominated by the Ice Age,

03:57which means these invertebrates were lying dormant when Manny and Cid were having their adventure while roaming the icy landscapes,

04:04along with saber-toothed cats and giant ground sloths.

04:07Fun fact!

04:10Although animated movies like Ice Age show woolly mammoths as huge, towering giants,

04:15they were actually about the same size and weight as today's average African elephant.

04:21Nature and evolution can be so cruel, yet fascinatingly unpredictable.

04:26Massive, menacing beasts that came from the Ice Age couldn't survive it,

04:30yet something tiny and weird, like a bedelloid, could.

04:34But, regarding our unfrozen creature,

04:39after the soil thawed, the organism didn't just begin moving again,

04:43it also started reproducing.

04:45This is thanks to an ability called parthenogenesis,

04:49a specific form of reproduction in which embryos develop from unfertilized eggs,

04:54allowing them to reproduce independently.

04:57It really is like cloning, but it happens naturally.

05:00Many organisms, such as certain insects, reptiles, and even some birds,

05:05are capable of parthenogenesis, at least under specific conditions.

05:10For example, in honeybees, males develop from unfertilized eggs through parthenogenesis,

05:16making them genetic copies of their mother.

05:19However, parthenogenesis is often seen as an evolutionary disadvantage

05:23because it limits genetic diversity,

05:26meaning that most species that reproduce this way eventually face extinction.

05:32Despite this, bedelloid rotifers have diversified into over 450 distinct species over millions of years,

05:40which is extremely rare.

05:43Scientists believe their survival comes down to a few evolutionary adaptations.

05:47They can pause their metabolism through cryptobiosis,

05:51repair their DNA with specialized proteins,

05:54and even borrow useful genes from other organisms,

05:58using a process called horizontal gene transfer.

06:02Unlike most animals, which rely solely on inherited DNA,

06:07these organisms can steal genetic material from bacteria, fungi, and even plants,

06:12splicing foreign genes into their genome to gain new survival traits.

06:18Some studies have shown that up to 10% of their active genome comes from foreign DNA.

06:23This could explain their extraordinary resilience.

06:26They borrow genes for stress resistance, toxin breakdown, or radiation repair,

06:31essentially patching and upgrading their DNA in real time.

06:37It's not like the mind flayer from Stranger Things

06:40where the creature absorbs another organism to improve itself and grow.

06:44It's more like a spy stealing a blueprint from a rival lab to learn its secrets.

06:50When cells rupture, for example, when bacteria die nearby,

06:53bedelloids scoop up loose DNA fragments and integrate them into their own genome.

06:58Interestingly, the usual expected lifespan of bedelloid rotifers,

07:02under normal circumstances, is only two weeks.

07:05The soil sample that contained these rotifers also held nematodes, or roundworms,

07:12another group of tiny survivors already known to withstand tens of thousands of years icebound.

07:19This isn't just limited to microscopic animals.

07:23Researchers have successfully regrown Antarctic moss and entire campion plants

07:28from seeds and samples frozen for hundreds or even thousands of years.

07:32In 2016, a team of Japanese scientists brought tardigrades, or simply water bears,

07:38back to life after 30 years in cryptobiosis.

07:42Tardigrades are even more impressive because they can live in a suspended state for up to 30 years,

07:48without food or water, and with temperature swings from deep freeze to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

07:54These guys can also endure crushing deep-sea pressures, vacuum, microgravity, and intense radiation of space.

08:03Remember when we said earlier that these species can survive the harshest conditions on Earth and beyond?

08:09It wasn't an exaggeration, and now you understand why.

08:14And it's exactly why NASA and its partners sent water bears and bedelloid rotifers into orbit.

08:19They've even been aboard the ISS, helping scientists understand how these animals handle microgravity, radiation, and stress.

08:29Not only that, but in 2007, the European Space Agency launched a bunch of tardigrades into low Earth orbit,

08:36completely exposed, no suit, no shield, floating in a vacuum.

08:40They were blasted by cosmic radiation, UV light 1,000 times stronger than what hits Earth's surface,

08:47and temperatures near absolute zero.

08:50And when they came back, most of them woke up,

08:53and reproduced despite the harsh conditions they were exposed to.

08:58This ties into an old theory called panspermia,

09:02the idea that life didn't originate on Earth but arrived here,

09:06locked in space dust or trapped inside a meteorite.

09:09Before, maybe it sounded like a fringe science,

09:13but when organisms can brush off cosmic radiation,

09:16then it doesn't seem so far-fetched, does it?

09:19What about humans?

09:20Does this mean we now fully understand the way hibernation works

09:24and are close to putting humans in this state?

09:27Sorry for spoiling it for you, but it still feels more like science fiction.

09:32However, researching rotifers, water bears, and similar organisms

09:35can lead to massive breakthroughs in other fields.

09:38Their resilience might be a blueprint.

09:41A blueprint for medicine.

09:43For reshaping what it means to age.

09:45Maybe even to pause life itself.

09:48Or extend it.

09:49We're talking real, practical innovations.

09:52From better preservation of human organs for transplantation,

09:55to drugs that slow aging at the cellular level.

09:59And yes, maybe even cryogenic hibernation,

10:02long enough to make interstellar travel possible.

10:04That's it for today.

10:08So hey, if you pacified your curiosity,

10:10then give the video a like and share it with your friends.

10:12Or if you want more, just click on these videos

10:15and stay on the bright side.

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