A Living Time Capsule

From Neatorama:

Some living things can be held in a suspended animation of sorts and be "resurrected" long afterward. Plant seeds are the most common example, and the brine shrimp capsules that develop into "sea monkeys" are a familiar animal example of cryptobiosis. A shrimp called Daphnia is more commonly known as a water flea. Their egg cases can develop into water fleas months later, or they can sink into the sediment of lake bottoms, where they remain dormant. Evolutionary ecologist Lawrence J. Weider developed a method for resurrecting these eggs after years of dormancy. He hatched a plan to dig up old Daphnia eggs from the bottom of Minnesota lakes and compare the resulting animals to current populations, to see how the changing environments of the lakes (which were well documented) led to any differences in the water fleas. The results of the experiment are fascinating. But that's not what's most mind-boggling about this story.

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