But soon after the paper was published and widely reported, other Vostok experts voiced strong skepticism about its conclusions. (Related: "Race Is On to Find Life Under Antarctic Ice.")

Nothing like the kind of multicellular life described in the paper has been identified in Vostok ice cores before, they said, and the paper does not provide the strong scientific support needed to back its extraordinary claims.

Study leader Scott O. Rogers, of Bowling Green State University in Ohio, acknowledged the other scientists' doubts and said he expected it.

He said that his team used a new technique to concentrate and then analyze genetic sequences found in the sample, and that "time will tell if we're right or we're wrong."

The core