This blog may help people explore some of the 'hidden' issues involved in certain media treatments of environmental and scientific issues. Using personal digital images, it's also intended to emphasise seasonal (and other) changes in natural history of the Swansea (South Wales) area. The material should help participants in field-based modules and people generally interested in the natural world. The views are wholly those of the author.
Wednesday 9 June 2021
Old Woman Rotifer?
A team from the Soil Cryology Lab used radiocarbon dating, confirming that Dbelloid rotifers, from deep drillings in the Siberian permafrost, were 24,000 years old (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/jun/07/24000-year-old-organisms-found-frozen-in-siberia-can-still-reproduce). These tiny multicellular animals have been around at least 35 million years. Rotifers are known for their ability to withstand extreme condions such as radiation, low oxygen levels, very low temperatures etc. They enter a state of crytobiosis that involves stopping all the normal living processes. Dbelloid rotifers are always female reproducing by cloning (dividing into 2 copies) themselves. The 24,000 year-old specimens could still successfully procreate. Now, that's tough! Some life will still be around, if humans manage to wreck the planet!
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