
Ancient life awakens amid thawing ice caps and permafrost - gscott
https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/science/2019/07/08/ancient-life-awakens-amid-thawing-ice-caps-and-permafrost/
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yeldarb
There’s reason to be skeptical.

Here’s a lengthy twitter thread diving into the reincarnated ancient nematodes
mentioned in the article:
[https://twitter.com/jacquelyngill/status/1148770899065266176...](https://twitter.com/jacquelyngill/status/1148770899065266176?s=21)

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brownbat
That thread should be the link. We need more clear and calm explainers like
that from scientists.

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inflatableDodo
>as human-caused warming peels away ice cover in the Arctic and Antarctic,
whoever makes it out of the ice alive is poised to dominate the budding polar
ecosystems.

This should be spoken loudly and slowly, in a deep baritone.

>Hulking among the puny bacteria and amoebae were long, segmented worms
complete with a head at one end and anus at the other - nematodes.

>"Of course we were surprised and very excited," Vishnivetskaya said. Clocking
in at a half-millimeter long, the nematodes that wriggled back to life were
the most complex creatures Vishnivetskaya - or anyone else - had ever revived
after a lengthy deep freeze.

>She estimated one nematode to be 41,000 years old - by far the oldest living
animal ever discovered. This very worm dwelled in the soil beneath
Neanderthals' feet and had lived to meet modern-day humans in Vishnivetskaya's
high-tech laboratory.

Fucking hell, they are hardy little bastards. I wonder if there's any living
on comets?

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GuiA
_> I wonder if there's any living on comets?_

Wikipedia article on nematodes:

 _Nematode worms (C. elegans), part of an ongoing research project conducted
on the Space Shuttle Columbia mission STS-107, survived the re-entry breakup.
It is believed to be the first known life form to survive a virtually
unprotected atmospheric descent to Earth 's surface._

If we wanted to shake things up a bit, maybe we could just shoot a bunch of
rocks full of nematodes in space. I’m sure some interesting things will come
out of it a few billion years later!

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inflatableDodo
As far as panspermia goes, I have long held that I really wouldn't be that
surprised either way, recently however, I have been coming around to thinking
that it seems more likely than not.

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jonas_kgomo
Isolated cases of permafrost thawing outbreaks can scale into an epidemic
black swan. For example, Canadian permafrost thawed 70 years earlier than
predicted [https://t.co/Lmc8x9IP6T](https://t.co/Lmc8x9IP6T)

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sebazzz
Since some bacteria and viruses can survive the cold, could there also be
dangerous deceases buried in the permafrost?

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Smithalicious
Man, that's one ominous title

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plink
No shoggoths?

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api
Those are in Antarctica.

