Figure 5.

Examples of ancient dormancy. Dormancy is prevalent among extant lineages, but is also common in Earth’s fossil record. (A) Sporocarps of slime moulds preserved in amber 100 million years ago (Ma) [28]. (B) Resting eggs from aquatic crustaceans (Daphnia) have been recovered from 130 Ma sediments [29]. (C) Some bacteria related to Bacillus form long-lived endospores that have been resuscitated from permafrost dated to >1 Ma [30]. (D) Cryptospores related to primitive plants have been dated to 450 Ma [31]. Panel (B) image is courtesy of J. Haney and panel (C) image is courtesy of D. Schwartz.