Scientists Revive 100 Million-Year-Old Microbes from Deep under Seafloor

Researchers work aboard the research drillship JOIDES Resolution with sediment cores gathered from deep beneath the seafloor under the Pacific Ocean. (Handout via Reuters)
Researchers work aboard the research drillship JOIDES Resolution with sediment cores gathered from deep beneath the seafloor under the Pacific Ocean. (Handout via Reuters)
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Scientists Revive 100 Million-Year-Old Microbes from Deep under Seafloor

Researchers work aboard the research drillship JOIDES Resolution with sediment cores gathered from deep beneath the seafloor under the Pacific Ocean. (Handout via Reuters)
Researchers work aboard the research drillship JOIDES Resolution with sediment cores gathered from deep beneath the seafloor under the Pacific Ocean. (Handout via Reuters)

Scientists have succeeded in reviving microbes retrieved from sediment deep under the seafloor in the heart of the South Pacific that had survived in a dormant state for 101.5 million years in research illustrating the resiliency of life on Earth.

The microbes, spanning 10 major and numerous minor groups of bacteria, may be the planet’s oldest-known organisms. The scientists said on Tuesday the microbes were present in clay samples drilled from the research vessel JOIDES Resolution about 245 feet (74.5 meters) under the seafloor, below 3.5 miles (5.7 km) of water.

Up to 99 percent of the microbes, dating back to the age of dinosaurs, that were found encased in the sediment survived despite having essentially no nutrients for all that time.

The researchers, led by Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology geomicrobiologist Yuki Morono, incubated the microbes for up to 557 days in a secure laboratory setting, providing carbon and nitrogen “food” sources such as ammonia, acetate and amino acids. The microbes grew, multiplied and displayed diverse metabolic activities.

“It is surprising and biologically challenging that a large fraction of microbes could be revived from a very long time of burial or entrapment in extremely low nutrient/energy conditions,” Morono said.

The microbes were aerobic - requiring oxygen to live - and oxygen was present in the sediment samples. This indicates, the researchers said, that if sediment accumulates gradually on the seafloor at a rate of no more than a yard (meter) or two every million years, oxygen may remain present to enable such microbes to survive stupendous lengths of time.

“The most exciting part of this study is that it basically shows that there is no limit to life in the old sediments of Earth’s oceans,” said University of Rhode Island oceanographer Steven D’Hondt, co-author of the study published in the journal Nature Communications.

“Maintaining full physiological capability for 100 million years in starving isolation is an impressive feat,” D’Hondt added.

Research published in 2000 described reviving bacteria inside 250 million-year-old salt crystals from Texas, but there is a dispute regarding the age of those microbes.



Funny Old World: The Week's Offbeat News

Lapdog Lassie: the chihuahua that helped rescuers find its master in the Swiss Alps. HANDOUT / Air Zermatt/AFP
Lapdog Lassie: the chihuahua that helped rescuers find its master in the Swiss Alps. HANDOUT / Air Zermatt/AFP
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Funny Old World: The Week's Offbeat News

Lapdog Lassie: the chihuahua that helped rescuers find its master in the Swiss Alps. HANDOUT / Air Zermatt/AFP
Lapdog Lassie: the chihuahua that helped rescuers find its master in the Swiss Alps. HANDOUT / Air Zermatt/AFP

From a hero lapdog Lassie to why tennis stars can't stop pinching Wimbledon towels. Your weekly roundup of offbeat stories from around the world.

Chihuahua to the rescue

A chihuahua saved a hiker who fell eight meters (26 feet) into a glacier crevasse high in the Swiss Alps.

The lapdog's "extraordinary" heroics surely saved his master, the Air Zermatt rescue service said, refusing to leave the spot where the man disappeared into the crevasse, leading rescuers straight to him, AFP said.

While the man was able to call for help with a walkie-talkie, rescuers struggled to locate him.

"The glacier surface was wide and the hole was barely visible," they said.

But then they spotted the tiny shivering Chihuahua perched on a rock, refusing to budge.

"Thanks to the dog's behavior, the crew was able to abseil down to the casualty and save him."

Doggone luxury

In the past, stricken alpinists could count on a sup of warming brandy from a St. Bernard dog. But these days, the gentle giants are more likely to be getting a massage, a manicure or a spot of hydrotherapy at the new Barryland theme park over the mountains at Martigny, where Switzerland's national dog is a major tourist attraction.

Helicopters have now taken over their mountain rescue role, allowing the St. Bernards to enjoy their retirement as pampered pensioners or care dogs.

Leaping mad

This involves crossing canals by clambering up a 12-meter (40-foot) pole -- roughly the height of a four-storey building -- so you can land (or be catapulted) to the other side. The uniquely Dutch sport combines pole-vaulting, long jump and, when misjudged, some unplanned swimming in the soup.

Farmer and fierljeppen world record holder Jacob de Groot told AFP that the sport may not have caught on elsewhere because "in the rest of the world there are not so many canals and also maybe the people are not so crazy".

Centre Court steal

Polish tennis ace Iga Swiatek powered through the women's singles at Wimbledon, bagging as many of the tournament's trademark towels as she could carry.

"No one talks about it, but we love your towels," she admitted after dispatching Russian Polina Kudermetova on Monday.

"Every time I come back 10 members of my family want the towels. Sorry Wimbledon, I am not sure if I'm allowed."

But the 24-year-old makes sure to keep some for herself. "I have lots at home. If I play on the circuit for another 15 years, I will have to build another room to keep them in," she laughed.