Microbes Likely Abundant Hundreds of Meters Below Sea Floor

sciencehabit writes "Samples drilled from 3.5-million-year-old seafloor rocks have yielded the strongest evidence yet that a variety of microorganisms live deeply buried within the ocean's crust. These microbes make their living by consuming methane and sulfate compounds dissolved in the mineral-rich waters flowing through the immense networks of fractures in the crust. The new find confirms that the ancient lavas formed at midocean ridges and found throughout deep ocean basins are by volume the largest ecosystem on Earth, scientists say."

Comments

Re:First life form

[Immerman]

Not even close. They may possess some similarities to the first cellular life forms which were almost certainly also chemovores (though likely lived in amino-acid rich muck on the bottom of shallow seas), but these organisms have been evolving for four billion years since then - they are every bit as evolved as humans, arguably far more so since their generations are so much shorter. They simply spent more time optimizing for a particular ecosystem niche whereas our ancestors kept changing directions dramatically. I mean come on - living in giant clonal colonies of billions of specialized individuals? Clearly a fad. It'll last a few billion years more, tops.