Deep sea microbes dormant for 100 million years are hungry and ready to multiply
Tuesday, July 28, 2020 - 11:20
in Earth & Climate
For decades, scientists have gathered ancient sediment samples from below the seafloor to better understand past climates, plate tectonics and the deep marine ecosystem. In a new study published in Nature Communications, researchers reveal that given the right food in the right laboratory conditions, microbes collected from sediment as old as 100 million years can revive and multiply, even after laying dormant since large dinosaurs prowled the planet.