Forscher entdeckten lebende Mikroben in einem 2 Milliarden Jahre alten Gestein. Dies ist das älteste bisher entdeckte Beispiel lebender Mikroben in altem Gestein.

I’ve linked to the news release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00248-024-02434-8

From the linked article:

Researchers discovered living microbes in a 2-billion-year-old rock, the oldest example of microbial life found to date.

Pockets of microbes have been found living within a sealed fracture in 2-billion-year-old rock. The rock was excavated from the Bushveld Igneous Complex in South Africa, an area known for its rich ore deposits. This is the oldest example of living microbes being found within ancient rock so far discovered. The team involved in the study built on its previous work to perfect a technique involving three types of imaging – infrared spectroscopy, electron microscopy and fluorescent microscopy – to confirm that the microbes were indigenous to the ancient core sample and not caused by contamination during the retrieval and study process. Research on these microbes could help us better understand the very early evolution of life, as well as the search for extraterrestrial life in similarly aged rock samples brought back from Mars.

Deep in the earth lies something ancient and alive. Colonies of microbes live in rocks far beneath the surface, somehow managing to survive for thousands, even millions of years. These tiny, resilient organisms appear to live life at a slower pace, scarcely evolving over geological time spans and so offering us a chance to peek back in time. Now, researchers have found living microbes in a rock sample dated to be 2 billion years old.

Wait a minute… How did they survive there? What source of energy did they have? For life to continue for that long in an isolated system, there should be a certain chemical balance, I imagine?