cryptobiosis

Under extreme conditions, tardigrades may engage in cryptobiosis, a process in which they may become completely dehydrated and roll up into a little ball called a "tun."

After all, the fundamental trick to cryptobiosis is a complete state of inactivity, which jokes about laziness aside is not physically possible for humans.

But before this, the longest a nematode had been known to survive through cryptobiosis was about 25 years.

The roughly millimeter-long worms were able to resist extreme low temperatures by entering a dormant state called cryptobiosis, a process researchers at the institute have been trying to understand.

In addition to the radiocarbon dating, the authors of the new study also confirmed that they could successfully induce the nematodes to enter and exit the dormancylike state of cryptobiosis using special preparatory cues.