Sleeping microbes wake up after 100 million years buried under the seafloor

[admin]

The microbes had been dormant below the ocean floor for eons, buried since the time of the dinosaurs. Then a team of scientists in Japan woke the little organisms up.

Sleeping microbes wake up after 100 million years buried under the seafloor : Read more

 

[Chem721]

Microbes found in 100 m.y. old sediments don't make the microbes 100 m.y. old. I see no evidence whatsoever to support the extremely unlikely possibility that these bugs are that old. If you can prove the sediment has "locked out" all forms of life from penetrating for that period of time, you might have a case. That also seems equally unlikely.

One suspects that closer examination of the bugs will demonstrate they are not what this report notes. It is nearly impossible for such forms to persist in a non-vegetative state for a million years, much less 100 million. Again, just because they found bugs living in ancient sediments don't make them as old as the sediment. There is near certainty one can find similar ancient sediments in many places, with bugs that invaded the sediments relatively recently.

 

[MendicantMonk]

Exactly my thoughts. It is a process known as bioturbation. Then again I find it hard to believe that they weren't aware of this possibility.

 

[rooare]

Reminded me of Rodan

 

[Chem721]

Reminded me of Rodan

Reminded me that microbes subjected to 100 million years of background radiation are NOT going to wake up and return to life.

And then there is the problem of amino acid racemization by chemical interconversion , to mention just one minor problem. Finding viable life after 100 million years in a sediment is rather difficult to buy into. But it makes for a good story!

Realistically, the best these microbes could hope for would be leaving some form of fossil evidence of their past existence.