Bdelloid rotifers, meanwhile, have been reproducing parthenogenetically for 60 million years.

与此同时，蛭形轮虫已经孤雌生殖了近 6000 万年。

If you wanna get small, there's rotifers and other kinds of...protozoans.

如果你想要小一点的，还有轮虫和其他种类的......原生动物。

For the smallest fry these are often rotifers, a phylum of tiny animals discovered in the late 17th century by early microscopists.

最小的鱼苗通常会喂食轮虫，轮虫是17世纪晚期由早期显微镜家发现的一门微小动物。

Just a reminder, rotifers have a simple brain and a simple nervous system.

提醒一下，轮虫有一个简的大脑和一个简的神经系统。

So, the previous record for frozen rotifers was a decade or so.

霍普金：所以，冷冻轮虫的先前记录是十年左右。

It means that a successful mutated line of rotifers will not be diluted by the genetic mixing caused by sexual congress.

这意味着一个成功的轮虫突变系不会被有性繁殖引起的基因混合所稀释。

In fact, these little ladies reproduce asexually, laying eggs that hatch into the next generation of self-propagating rotifers.

霍普金：事实上，这些小雌性进行无性繁殖，产卵孵化出下一代的自繁殖轮虫。

Now, the fact that rotifers can spring to life after a thaw is not a total surprise.

现在，轮虫在解冻后能够重新活过来这一事实并不完全令人惊讶。

The next step is studying how rotifers can chill for millennia and still maintain their cellular integrity.

霍普金：下一步是研究轮虫如何在寒冷几千年后仍然保持其细胞完整性。

That's why we are going to study proteins that help rotifers to survive in those conditions.

Malavin：这就是为什么我们要研究有助于轮虫在这些条件下生存的蛋白质。

Entering a state of cryptobiosis allows even modern rotifers to survive seasonal changes in their local environment and more otherworldly assaults.

进入隐生状态甚至可以让现代轮虫在当地环境的季节性变化和更多来自其他世界的攻击中生存下来。

Rotifers are better—or at least more interesting—because they're multicellular animals, with a head and a body, that can eat, crawl around and make more rotifers.

霍普金：轮虫更好——或者至少更有趣——因为它们是多细胞动物，有头部和身体， 可以进食、爬行并制造更多的轮虫。

Above the size of L rotifers, however, farmers switch phylum and feed their charges crustaceans called brine shrimps, the smallest of which clock in at 400 microns.

然而，L号轮虫再往上，农民们换了门，用一种被称为“盐水虾”的甲壳类动物喂食，最小的盐水虾长度有400微米。