The picture to the left shows a small microscopic leech that may not look much to the world. But do not be fooled by its appearance, as it is extremely resilient and has just set a world record.

The leech is called Ozobranchus Jantseanus and the record it has set was to survive in liquid nitrogen for a total of 24 hours.

Liquid nitrogen is not the most hospitable of environments with a temperature of minus 196 degrees Celsius (minus 321 Fahrenheit).

Earlier another small creature was found to survive for about an hour but that record was thus shattered by the leech.

What makes things even more interesting is that if the scientists set the temperature at “only”  minus 90 degrees Celsius (minus 130 Fahrenheit) the little leech can survive for between 9 to 32 months.

The paper was recently published in the scientific journal PlosOne, see below.

______________
A Leech Capable of Surviving Exposure to Extremely Low Temperatures

____________________________