Scientists Cracked a 2-Billion-Year-Old Rock and Found Living Microbes

A rock that’s over 2 billion years old may change how scientists understand the evolution of life on Earth.

Researchers, in a study published in Microbial Ecology, found living microbes trapped inside the ancient stone. It’s “the oldest example of living microbes being found within ancient rock so far discovered,” according to a press release.

“We didn’t know if 2-billion-year-old rocks were habitable,” said Yohey Suzuki, lead author and associate professor at the University of Tokyo. “Until now, the oldest geological layer in which living microorganisms had been found was a 100-million-year-old deposit beneath the ocean floor, so this is a very exciting discovery.”

In some ways, this rock acts like a time capsule. The earliest forms of life on Earth appeared roughly 3.5 billion years ago, while humans have only existed for a few hundred thousand years.

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The microbes inside the stone evolved extremely slowly over the millennia. This suggests that studying their genetic material could provide groundbreaking insights.

“By studying the DNA and genomes of microbes like these,” said Suzuki, “we may be able to understand the evolution of very early life on Earth.”

The stone was found deep underground in South Africa’s Bushvelt Igneous Complex. The international research team believes that studying these ancient microbes could also aid in the search for life on other planets.

NASA’s Perseverance mission, for example, aims to bring back samples from Mars that could be as old as this Earthly rock. Suzuki shared his excitement, saying that the discovery of these ancient microbes might be a preview of what could be found on Mars.