Dinosaurs ruled these lands from 245 million to about 65 million years ago.
Dinosaurs ruled these lands from 245 million to about 65 million years ago. You can see their fossils at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis or take a look at Big Al, the Allosaurus at the Geological Museum on the University of Wyoming campus.
Wimps. Living creatures being studied in a UW laboratory to glean secrets of toughness -- and possibly stabilize medical biologics -- have existed for 600 million years, making the rise, flourish and extinction of the dinosaurs a boring yawn in the passage of millennia for tardigrades, or “water bears.”
Molecular biology researcher Thomas Boothby, a UW assistant professor, and his colleagues are studying how the diminutive, less-than-half-a-millimeter-long creatures can survive being completely dried out; being frozen to just above absolute zero (about minus 458 degrees Fahrenheit, when all molecular motion stops); heated to more than 300 degrees Fahrenheit; irradiated several thousand times beyond what a human could withstand; and even survive the vacuum of outer space.
That Energizer pink bunny that keeps on going and going? Please …
“Despite them being discovered years ago, we really practically know nothing about these animals,” says Boothby, who joined the Department of Molecular Biology last year. “I’m excited about the fundamental discoveries we are making, but also how we can apply those to help solve societal and global health issues.”
Read more at University Of Wyoming
Image: SEM image of Milnesium tardigradum in active state. CREDIT: Schokraie E, Warnken U, Hotz-Wagenblatt A, Grohme MA, Hengherr S, et al.
