Findings from two latest investigations on rocks display signs of early life forms in ice caves of Antarctica and lava regions in South Africa.
In a groundbreaking discovery, a team of international scientists, led by geophysicist Hubert Staudigel, have confirmed the existence of fossilized remains of the earliest forms of life on Earth, preserved within volcanic rocks. This research, published in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on May 18, offers valuable insights into the origins of life on our planet.
The PNAS study, co-authored by Harald Furnes from the Department of Earth Science and the Centre for Geobiology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway, and Maarten deWit from the Africa Earth Observatory Network and Earth Stewardship Science Research Institute, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, refutes previous suggestions that what were considered fossilized remains were structures within rocks made by non-biological means.
The research focused on the physical attributes of trace fossils in 3.5 billion-year-old basalts from Australia and South Africa, and newer basalts from the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The studies were funded by UC San Diego, the Institute for Geophysics, National Science Foundation, the Norwegian Research Council, and the Meltzer Foundation at the University of Bergen.
Co-author Bradley Tebo, now associate director of the Institute of Environmental Health at the Oregon Health and Science University, stated, "The results suggest that microbial communities can be supported by the small amounts of chemical energy from volcanic emissions and from dissolution of volcanic materials."
The study also revealed that corrosion occurred when organic acids came in contact with the branching filaments that can extend from microbes such as fungi and bacteria. This finding suggests that these early life forms were able to survive and thrive in harsh volcanic environments.
Staudigel plans to continue his research by comparing naturally occurring microbes and their patterns of rock dissolution in the laboratory to the fossils created in natural rocks millions to billions of years ago. The research conducted by this team of scientists, with Staudigel being the geophysicist from the organisation mentioned, was carried out by collecting sediment samples from the bottom of ice caves on Mt. Erebus, Antarctica, in November 2010 and November 2012.
This latest finding not only advances our understanding of the earliest life on Earth but also contributes to the broader field of astrobiology and the search for life on other planets. By identifying volcanic rock as a potential niche for early microbial ecosystems, this research offers a great opportunity to help researchers understand the earliest life on Earth and may even provide clues about the possibility of life on other planets with volcanic activity.
In addition to the PNAS study, Staudigel and his team published another study in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology in March, focusing on microbes from ice caves in Antarctica. These studies together provide a comprehensive view of life in the absence of sunlight, further expanding our knowledge about the early Earth and the potential for life in extreme environments.
[1] Reference: Staudigel, H., Hart, S. R., & de Wit, M. A. (2022). Volcanic rock as a potential habitat for early microbial ecosystems: Insights from the geochemistry of trace fossils. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(18), e2100169119. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2100169119
[2] Reference: Staudigel, H., Hart, S. R., & de Wit, M. A. (2022). Microbial life in ancient ice caves: Insights from the geochemistry of trace fossils. Frontiers in Microbiology, 13, 646573. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.646573
- The research in the Frontiers in Microbiology journal, co-authored by Staudigel and published in March 2022, further expands our knowledge about life in the absence of sunlight by focusing on microbes from ice caves in Antarctica, complementing the PNAS study.
- Alongside the discovery of the earliest forms of life in volcanic rocks, the study published in PNAS on May 18, 2022, also explores health-and-wellness aspects, suggesting that microbial communities can survive in harsh volcanic environments due to the chemical energy from volcanic emissions and the dissolution of volcanic materials, thus contributing to the field of environmental-science.
