On Jul. 28, 2023, researchers from the Institute of Zoology at the University of Cologne, the Max Planck Institute and the Center for Systems Biology Dresden, using genome sequencing, assembly, and phylogenetic analysis announced that a 46.000 year old nematode, which was found in the Siberian Permafrost, belongs to a previously undescribed species, Panagrolaimus kolymaensis.

They showed that the biochemical mechanisms employed by Panagrolaimus kolymaensis to survive desiccation and freezing under laboratory conditions are similar to that of a life-cycle stage in the important biological model Caenorhabditis elegans. The study was published in the journal PLOS Genetics.