Scientist Revive 100 Million Year Old Microbes In Lab, Prove Life On Earth Is Timeless
Japan researchers have been able to revive more than 100 million-year-old microbes
You might think that every living organism on Earth would have a definite age limit. Scientists, however, have now found proof of some that have ¡°no age limit¡± whatsoever.
As per the discoverers, these organisms are found in the sub-seafloor biosphere, shrouded in mystery waiting for us to unlock.
Reuters
That is at the bottom of the sea. The reason scientists know this for sure now is that they have successfully been able to revive microbes that had lain dormant since the age of dinosaurs, more than 100 million years ago.
The recent effort has been made by a team led by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC). Now published in the journal Nature Communications, the research analysed samples of ancient sediment deposited on the seabed of the South Pacific more than 100 million years ago.
Reviving 'eternal' life on earth
(Representative Image: Reuters)
The team of researchers was amazed to find microbes living In the oldest of sediment samples, dating back to as much as 101.5 million years ago. The team was successfully able to incubate and revive nearly all of these microbes in their lab.
¡°Many cells responded rapidly to incubation conditions, increasing total numbers by 4 orders of magnitude and taking up labeled carbon and nitrogen within 68 days after incubation¡± the research mentions.
"When I found them, I was first skeptical whether the findings are from some mistake or a failure in the experiment," lead author Yuki Morono said in an interaction with AFP.
The study is a stark reminder of how some of the oldest life on Earth can persist in hostile conditions through millions of years.
"We now know that there is no age limit for (organisms in the) sub-seafloor biosphere," Morono said.
Dormant life on earth waiting to be revived
(Representative Image: Reuters)
The research points out how the microbes have been living with the least amount of food in the hostile environment. As per Morono, oxygen traces in the sediment allowed the microbes to stay alive for millions of years.
During this while, the microbes spent virtually no energy in existence.
Even though such energy levels would not have been enough for surviving on the surface of the Earth, deep water seabeds allowed the microbes to stay alive through the gigantic time frame.
"Unlike us, microbes grow their population by divisions, so they do not actually have the concept of lifespan," Morono explained. And that is one of the reasons why life on Earth is sure to exist in some form or the other even after a million years from now.
