As Andean Glacier Retreats, Tiny Life Forms Swiftly Move In
Monday, September 8, 2008 - 21:28
in Paleontology & Archaeology
Scientists working at 16,400 feet in the Peruvian Andes has discovered how barren soils uncovered by retreating glacier ice can swiftly establish a thriving community of microbes, setting the table for lichens, mosses and alpine plants. The discovery is the first to reveal how microbial life becomes established and flourishes in one of the most extreme environments on Earth and has implications for how life may have once flourished on Mars.