How old are bacteria from the Permian age?

Robert M. Hazen () and Edwin Roedder
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Robert M. Hazen: Geophysical Laboratory and NASA Astrobiology Institute, Carnegie Institution of Washington

Nature, 2001, vol. 411, issue 6834, 155-155

Abstract: Abstract Discovery of bacteria that remain viable in a dormant state for lengthy periods is significant for understanding patterns of microbial diversity and evolution on Earth, as well as for assessing the possibility of life's interplanetary transport by impact processes. The isolation by Vreeland et al.1 of viable 250-million-year-old bacteria is an extraordinary claim, based on meticulous extraction from evaporite deposits of the Delaware Basin. If valid, this discovery expands dramatically the maximum proposed age for microbial survivability. Here we argue that, although the Permian age of these well-documented deposits is not in question, the fluid inclusions and the viable bacterial spores contained in them may represent much more recent features. The age of these microbes must therefore remain uncertain.

Date: 2001
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DOI: 10.1038/35075663

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