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An amazing, microscopic tardigrade was back to life after it was frozen for more than 30 years by Japan's National Institute of Polar Research, said a press release.

Also called a "water bear" due to the shape of its head, this is among the most durable creatures on Earth, able to withstand freezing as well as boiling. It can be dried till it reaches the "no moisture" point, get re-exposed to normal living conditions and then get back to a state of equilibrium.

As long ago as November 1983, two tardigrades were found in a sample of moss from the Showa Station in Antarctica. They were retrieved and put into a freezer of 20 degrees Celsius.

Fished out again in 2014, the team tested their skill to survive.

Strangely, they were both placed in a warm environment in order to permit thawing, after which each one seemed to show signs of life when they were exposed. But while one of them died, the other one began to revive in less than a week. After two weeks it was live and moving as if things were absolutely fine. It laid eggs that soon spawned healthy offspring. The team got a tardigrade egg from the original sample of moss, which, after getting warm, hatched into a healthy offspring that finally laid some more eggs!

Earlier, the survival rate for a tardigrade was nine years, while, for a nematode, the number of years could be almost 39 years. They were able to both sink into cryptobiosis, halting all their metabolism.

The study was published in Dec. 25,2015 issue of Cryobiology.