30,000 year old microbes found alive in ancient salt – EarthSky
In late 2010, Binghamton University geologist Tim Lowenstein and his team were awarded a 400K grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study water droplets trapped in ancient salt. There are microscopic creatures ‘buried alive’ in there, he told EarthSky, some of which have survived for more than 30,000 years.
“I think what really caught everybody’s attention is that there’s such a diversity of life inside these crystals,” he said, “and these fluid inclusions that we look at are little time capsules that are not just containing a single cell of one organism but they have a whole ecosystem inside.”
He explained that these water droplets are a little like snow globes, in miniature — a world unto themselves. He expects that organisms called archaea — along with algae, bacteria and virsuses — are present in these water drops.
Dr. Lowenstein’s NSF research will focus on sequencing the DNA of all the organisms he finds ‘buried alive’ in ancient water drops. His team was awarded the money to do so in late 2010.
via 30,000-year-old microbes found alive in ancient salt | Biodiversity | EarthSky.
