Rotifer recovering from week-long cryptobiosis in the lab. Credit: Lyubov Shmakova. For 24,000 years, tiny creatures lay dormant, entombed in the frozen depths of Siberia’s permafrost.

The scientists took the frozen rotifers and thawed them gently, at which point the rotifers began to just live their lives again, including their characteristic asexual reproduction. The secret of ...