In July 1946, a petroleum geologist traveled thousands of miles to an oil field in Mexico. During his exploration, he dug up a frog in hibernation. When the geologist found it, the frog was buried in the beak at a depth of 2m. Strangely, when it was first dug up, the frog’s skin was still soft and shiny. It wasn’t until 2 days later that it actually died.
2 million years long sleep
The sudden death of the frog made the geologist feel extremely puzzled. Until, scientists conducted radiocarbon dating, they discovered that this mine is more than 2 million years old. The frog may have been buried since the mine was formed. Or it can be understood that the frog has lived in the mines for more than 2 million years.
The frog has been lying in the mines for 2 million years. (Artwork: Baidu)
Thus, the frog was here for a long time in hibernation and did not die. Vitality as a thing is undoubtedly one of the most puzzling things in the history of biology. Indeed, hibernating frogs are not a new discovery.
In the 16th century, in a record of the surgeon Ambroise Pare, the personal physician of King Henri III (England), there was a description of a builder who accidentally dropped a stone and hit a frog. Immediately the frog lay motionless, but a moment later it regained consciousness and jumped away.
In North America, the Sirenia pygmy water ox, when exposed to extreme conditions, can slumber for more than a year. During this time, their body will reduce their metabolic rate thousands of times, or even stop altogether. Therefore, in the dry season, African aborigines often take advantage of catching eels and locusts by using a hoe. Right under the dry soil are eels and grasshoppers that are still fresh. They are motionless but not because they just died, just drop them into the water, after 10 minutes they will come back to life as usual. The way scientists call the form of “false death” in hard dry soil.
Eels and grasshoppers also have a similar “false death” situation when facing difficult conditions. (Artwork: Baidu)
At an auction in London, England in 1862, people displayed a hollow coal block with a picture of a frog and next to it was a frog that had been in it for thousands of years. This coal was found in the New Port coal mine. Not long after, another frog was found in the Lilishal coal mine in Paddington.
In the 18th century, while building a stone embankment along the beach of Toulon (France). The workers, after breaking down these stone embankments, found living moats in the rocky soil. In 1818, a geologist came here to take samples at a depth of 15 m. He saw three strange animals come out. Two died immediately upon exposure to the air, but one was still alive when Clark dropped it into the water. Scientists identified this animal as an animal that existed on earth 10 million years ago.
In early 1856, a group of mine users demolished a large cliff and discovered an animal shaped like a dinosaur. It let out a cry and then died. Because they did not have the conditions to preserve its carcass, scientists have preserved its bones to this day. Archaeologists think it was a prehistoric pterosaur…
It seems that these animals, as well as the other 2 million year old frog, have the ability to hibernate indefinitely? So is this the key to helping humans achieve immortality?
The “key” of immortality of mankind?
Many scientists have embarked on research to find out the real secret behind the frog’s million-year long “hibernation”.
Some people think that, because the frog was stuck in the mine, it was the main factor that caused it to fall into hibernation instead of dying like that. They tested several other frogs under similar conditions. The results of the experiment showed that when the surrounding temperature increased by 10 degrees, the metabolism of frogs increased sharply by 2-3 times. When the temperature drops to 10 degrees, their metabolic needs are also slowed down to only 1/3 of normal.
Many scientists have tried many ways to test the miraculous survival ability of frogs. (Photo: Baidu)
However, the temperature in the mine where the frog was buried remained constant, and it did not suffer any stimulation. The frog is also unaffected by sun, rain, heat, cold, and wind. Just like that, the life of the frog was halted, without having to expend energy, so it could hibernate without eating for millions of years.
Earlier, an American scientist conducted a similar experiment. He first took a goldfish out of the water and dried it then put it in liquid air. The temperature in this air bath drops to minus 200 degrees. A few seconds later, he released the frozen goldfish back into the warm water. Immediately after, the fish came back to life and functioned normally.
Or French engineer Seghine was more daring when he mixed 20 frogs into the mortar and turned them into garden statues. Twelve years later, he smashed their statues. In which, 16 died, 4 frogs revived again a few dozen minutes later.
Image of a frog buried in cement found in Australia. (Photo: Baidu)
An American named Frank also decided to repeat the same experiment in 1852. He drilled many holes in a limestone rock and put 12 frogs in it. Then he used cement to seal the holes. At the same time, he also locked 12 other frogs into a sandstone block. After many years, he broke 2 “prisons” and strangely, all 24 frogs came back to life and worked normally.
From the results of these studies, it can be seen that not only frogs but many other animals have the miraculous ability to survive. However, can this secret of immortality be used on humans? This is still a puzzle that no one has solved yet.