Creatures survive 2 billion years trapped in rock

The discovery of these mysterious creatures raises hopes of finding life on Mars.

A research team led by geomicrobiologist Yohey Suzuki from the University of Tokyo (Japan) found a community of microorganisms that not only survived but thrived after 2 billion years of being cut off from everything we consider necessary for life.

The discovery breaks the record for the longest period of time a microbial community has survived in isolation. The previous record was 100 million years.

Green biological dye highlights surviving microorganisms in rock isolated for 2 billion years - Photo: UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

The mysterious, tiny creatures were found inside a rock sample drilled from 15 meters underground, part of a large rock mass called the Bushveld Igneous Complex in northeastern South Africa.

The rock mass is a 66,000-square-kilometer intrusion into the Earth's crust, formed about 2 billion years ago from molten magma that cooled below the surface.

In a 30-cm-long sample of clay-rich rock extracted from this core, they found the aforementioned creatures.

Dr. Suzuki and colleagues suggest that the formation and evolution of rocks over time may have been beneficial to their habitability.

It is the clay "encapsulated" in the rock that provides the resources for living bacteria, with organic and inorganic materials that they can metabolize.

However, it was the clay that sealed off the habitat of this small group of creatures for the past 2 billion years.

The bacterial communities in the rocks will need to be analyzed in more detail, including DNA analysis, to determine whether and, if so, how they evolved during the 2 billion years of isolation from the rest of life on Earth.

According to the authors, the exciting discovery in South Africa gives astrobiologists new hope.

On some planets that are thought to have once had life, there may well be some surviving communities of organisms encased in rock, isolated in the same way and thus not extinct along with terrestrial life.

The nearest such planet is Mars, which NASA is almost certain was a habitable world like Earth 3 billion years ago.

According to Lao Dong

Source: https://tienphong.vn/phat-hien-soc-dan-sinh-vat-song-sot-sau-2-ti-nam-bi-nhot-trong-da-post1680549.tpo