The organisms are 1.9 billion years older than the previously known record holders.
A sealed rock fracture almost 50 feet below ground has remained home to microbes for the last 2 billion years—the oldest life ever discovered in such conditions. The nearly 1-foot sample, excavated beneath South Africa's Bushveld Igneous Complex, predates the previous microbial record-holders by as much as 1.9 billion years. The finding could help researchers better understand the earliest stages of evolutionary life not just on Earth, but on Mars, as well. The findings, published October 2 in the journal Microbial Ecology, come from a team at the University of Tokyo's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, who confirmed the previous oldest known lifeforms in 2020. "We didn't know if 2-billion-year-old rocks were habitable… so this is a very exciting discovery," Yohey Suzuki, study lead author and an associate professor in the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Science, said in a statement on Thursday. This picture was taken on site when the drill core sample was washed, flamed and then cracked. Credit: Y. Suzuki Uncovering microbes…