Living microbes found inside a 2-billion-year-old rock
It is the oldest known rock hosting life, sealed in clay-filled cracks.
Inside a sealed crack in a 2-billion-year-old South African rock live colonies of microbes: the oldest example of its kind found so far.
A team led by Yohey Suzuki, of the University of Tokyo, analyzed a 30-centimeter rock core drilled from about 15 meters deep in the Bushveld Igneous Complex, in South Africa. When they cut it into thin slices, they found living microbial cells packed into the cracks. Nearby gaps were plugged with clay, so nothing could get in or out.
To rule out contamination during drilling or analysis, they combined three imaging techniques: infrared spectroscopy, electron microscopy and fluorescence microscopy with DNA staining. This confirmed the microbes were native to the rock and alive.
Until now, the oldest geological layer with living microbes was a 100-million-year-old deposit beneath the seafloor. Note: the microbes are not 2 billion years old; they colonized the rock after it formed. Even so, studying their DNA could offer clues about the early evolution of life.
Key facts
- The rock formed about 2.05 billion years ago.
- The Bushveld complex covers about 66,000 km² and supplies nearly 70% of the platinum mined worldwide.
- The study was published in Microbial Ecology in October 2024.
- It was supported by the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program.
- The rock core was 85 millimeters in diameter.
Suzuki hopes to apply the method to rocks of similar age that the Perseverance rover could bring back from Mars.
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