29 July 2009  Survival at extreme temperatures: what is it good
for?   JOHAN MERTENS, LYNDA BELADJAL, ANGELICA ALCANTARA, LIESJE
FOUGNIES, DOMINIQUE VAN DER STRAETEN and JAMES S. CLEGG (2008).
Survival of dried eukaryotes (anhydrobiotes) after exposure to
very high temperatures Biological Journal of the Linnean
Society, 93, 15-22 pdf  Ever since Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
demonstrated the appearance of animalcules* in cultures made
with previously dry dust more than 300 years ago, biologists
have been getting kicks out of pushing the limits of the
survivability of dried animals and plant seeds. This is one of
those studies the object of which seems to have been to
demonstrate how high a temperature certain organisms can
survive—regardless of whether or not the results had any
biological significance.  Mertens et al. showed that the seeds
or spores of various plants (Cardamine, Taraxacum, Adiantum,
etc.), the cysts of the crustaceans Branchipus schaefferi (fairy
shrimp) and Artemia franciscana (brine shrimp) as w