A team from the University of Cardiff in the UK has found living prokaryotes in a sediment sample extracted from between 860 metres and 1626 metres beneath the sea floor off the coast of Newfoundland.
The discovery marks the deepest living cells ever to be found beneath the sea floor. Bacteria have been found deeper underneath the continents, but there they are rare. In comparison, the rocks beneath the sea appear to be teaming with life.
It's not clear how the cells got there, but if they were buried by sedimentation, it is conceivable – but unproven – that some of the cells are as old as the sediment. At 1.6 km beneath the sea, that's 111 million years old...
Wow.
4 years ago
Kind of makes you wonder about the assumed age of the rocks, doesn't it :)
ReplyDeleteActually soft sediments, not rocks.
ReplyDeleteAnd if that is a suggestion that the earth cannot be that old then I would refer you to TalkOrigins before I say any more.