No, it’s not a redwood tree, or a sequoia or even a bristlecone pine. Those live up to 2,000 years, 3,200 years and 4,600 years, respectively. In late August, scientists reported they had discovered living organisms that are some 600,000 years old: bacteria extracted from ice cores in Canada, Siberia and Antarctica.
Granted, they’re not as sexy or interesting as trees, but I find it incredible that anything can live that long.
The scientists found that the bacteria had relatively intact DNA and they measured carbon dioxide respiring from the bacteria, indicating the organisms are metabolically active. The bacteria can even repair DNA.
This research indicates that life, albeit very tiny, can survive in extremely cold climates — in fact the colder, the better for DNA survival. The discovery gives some hope to the notion that similar life could exist on Mars or Europa (one of Jupiter’s moons).
Incredible. What do you think of this discovery and the prospects for similar life in other cold places in our solar system?
“The discovery gives some hope to the notion that similar life could exist on Mars or Europa” no it doesn’t haven’t you heard of Marian and Europian warming?
Dan, interesting discovery! This reminds me of a radio show we recorded last week, about NASA’s plan to search for “weird life” on other planets. In other words, life on other planets might not look like anything we currently imagine.
Granted, we imagine bacteria. But 600,000-year-old bacteria? I love it when we find out we don’t know everything … or even nearly everything.
Deborah
RealClimate has cleared up some of the confusion about whether there’s evidence of Mars undergoing global warming (it’s not, just regional variations). Good news for any microscopic critters that might be hiding in the ice.
How do they determine the age of these cells, carbon dating?
Good question - my guess is that they’re dating the water in proximity of the microbes using ice core techniques, where the layers accumulate and can be read like tree rings and compared with other data from around the globe to piece together its history.
This may come as a surprise to most people, but the article actually said CO2 ( known greenhouse gas) is comming from the bacteria and all bacteria emit CO2 via glycolsis. Other than that it was a facinating article.