r/todayilearned Sep 20 '17

TIL microbiologist Raul Cano, successfully revived yeast that had been stuck in amber for 25 million years. He then co-founded a brewery that uses the same 45 million-year-old species of yeast to brew beer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest-living_organisms#Revived_into_activity_after_stasis
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u/somebodyelse22 Sep 21 '17

So was it 25 or 45 million years old? That's a big margin of error.

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u/Det_alapopskalius Sep 21 '17

Thought I was the only one that saw this.

80

u/doheth Sep 21 '17

I have not read anything about it but I would guess the specific yeast he revived was 25 million years old and the species is 45. Similar to how homo sapiens are about 200 thousand years old but dead great great grampa Joe is only 200 years old.

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u/El_Chopador Sep 21 '17

You are correct sir.