Posted on 04/20/2005 2:04:30 PM PDT by PatrickHenry
Researchers say a bizarre group of microbes found living inside rocks in an inhospitable geothermal environment at Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park could provide tantalizing new clues about ancient life on Earth and help steer the hunt for evidence of life on Mars.
University of Colorado at Boulder (CU-Boulder) scientists Jeffrey Walker, John Spear and Norman Pace report the finding in the April 21 issue of the journal Nature. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation and NASA.
The CU-Boulder research team reported that the microbes were discovered in the pores of rocks in a highly acidic environment with high concentrations of metals and silicates at roughly 95 degrees Fahrenheit in Yellowstone's Norris Geyser Basin. The new study shows that the microbe communities are subject to fossilization and have the potential to become preserved in the geologic record.
Scientists believe similar kinds of geothermal environments may once have existed on Mars, where astrobiologists have intensified the search for past and present life forms in recent years.
"This is the first description of these microbial communities, which may be a good diagnostic indicator of past life on Mars because of their potential for fossil preservation," said Walker. "The prevalence of this type of microbial life in Yellowstone means that Martian rocks associated with former hydrothermal systems may be the best hope for finding evidence of past life there."
Located about 20 miles northwest of Yellowstone Lake, Norris Geyser Basin is considered to be the hottest and most-active geyser basin in Yellowstone and perhaps the world. It also is extremely acidic, according to the researchers.
"The pores in the rocks where these creatures live has a pH value of one, which dissolves nails," said Pace. "This is another example that life can be robust in an environment most humans view as inhospitable."
Walker discovered the new microbe community in 2003 after breaking apart a chunk of sandstone-like rock in the Norris Geyser Basin. An analysis determined that a green band within the rock was caused by a new species of photosynthetic microbes in the cyanidium group, a kind of alga that is among the most acid-tolerant photosynthetic organisms known, said Walker. Cyanidium organisms made up about 26 percent of the microbes identified in the Norris Geyser Basin study.
Surprisingly, the most abundant microbes identified by the team were a new species of mycobacterium, a group of microbes best known for causing human illnesses like tuberculosis and leprosy, Walker said. Extremely rare and never before identified in such extreme hydrothermal environments, mycobacterium made up 37 percent of the total number of microbes.
Pace described the new life form in the Norris Geyser Basin as "pretty weird. It may well be a new type of lichen-like symbiosis. It resembles a lichen, but instead of being a symbiosis between a fungus and an alga, it seems to be an association of the mycobacterium with an alga."
While photosynthesis appears to be a key energy source for most of the creatures, at least some of Yellowstone microbes are believed to get energy from the dissolved metals and hydrogen found in the pore water of the rock, Walker said.
The research effort in the Norris Geyser Basin shows that rock formation processes occurring in this hydrothermal environment make fossil imprints of the organisms embedded in the rock at various stages, showing how the distinctive fossils develop over time, according to the research team.
"Remnants of these communities could serve as 'biosignatures' and provide important clues about ancient life associated with geothermal environments on Earth or elsewhere in the Solar System," the authors wrote.
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Do creationists believe there may be life on other planets? Although I haven't researched creationism much (everything says the same thing: flaws in evolution), I haven't read anything about life on other planets. Since there's no mention of life on other planets in the Bible, I would expect Creationists to disbelieve that there is life on other planets on the basis that there is absolutely no evidence of life on any other planet except the earth.
If life was on Mars, it seems a bigger problem for evolutionists and bibleists than creationists.
There is virtually no mention of the planets in the bible. Usually it's the "sun, moon, and stars." I recall that maybe one or two references are made to planets, but they are negative comments about astrology. So it's a clean slate. (If life is found on other planets, they'll probably find some obscure phrase -- which is unappreciated now -- and say that they knew it all the time.)
Yes, there's life on Mars!
And I had sex with it before returning to Earth !!! ;-))
You just randomly pulled that out your ...., didn't you?
Then again, you're probably right. Evolutionists actually study the phenomenal world, so every new discovery provides additional fields of inquiry. Biblical literalists have enough problems as it is from an empirical standpoint, so this would just be yet one more nail. As for creationists, they just make it up as they go along.
Sorry for my earlier snark!
Study it closer. It's true.
But wouldn't such life have evolved over millions of years to fill whatever harsh environments on Mars. That it didn't, is a good indicator that either there is no life on Mars, the theory of evolution is flawed or both.
Actually, I think the real story here might be the ability to use a highly acid tolerant microbe to terraform Venus.
I don't know what a "bibleist" is, or in what manner that "they" differ from creationists. As far as evolution goes, life on Mars would not be a problem at all. Quite the opposite. I don't know where you got that from.
It would be utterly fascinating, especially on the genetic level. Is their DNA related to ours? Do they even use DNA? How do they reproduce? What do they eat? How do they breathe? It would be a truly major discovery, and would have absolutely have no negative effect on the Theory of Evolution whatsoever.
No, I agree. I had a momentary burst of impulsive ire for no apparent reason. :) Sorry!
Hey OK. We are all going for the truth.
And I had sex with it before returning to Earth !!! ;-))
Well, that certainly explains the outbreak of the Marsburg virus. Didn't anybody ever tell you to use protection? ;-)
There are mention of creatures other than Earthly Creatures. Angels, the living creatures around God's throne, etc..
The only Biblical reason, I'm aware of, to conclude that God didn't create life on other planets, is that Stars were created to give light to the earth and Earth was created for man. And the universe is scheduled to be destroyed at a time linked to man's history.
However, this is a pretty weak argument, and even if the universe's distruction fits with the culmination of Man's history, there's no reason to believe God couldn't coordinate the histories of multiple planets, so that the destruction was timely for all.
I agree with you. If the DNA is similar, evo's would theorize that life on Mars somehow came from the earth or vice versa. If the DNA was dissimilar, evo's would claim that life supported spontaneous abiogenesis being common, even if they still can't explain how it was done.
But the continued failure to find life anywhere in the universe, and the failure of that life to evolve to a point where it could contact us, is evidence pointing to how unlikely life is to have evolved.
...there is absolutely no evidence of life on any other planet except the earth.
There is evidence of life on both Mars and Venus; it's just not conclusive evidence, at least not yet.
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