By Leon Watson: 19:27 GMT, 22 May 2012
Deep-sea drilling uncovers bacteria that hasn't eaten for 86MILLION years
They haven't eaten for an incredible 86 million years - so you'd think they would be quite peckish.
But apparently not, because the hardy bacteria scientists found at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean
can live without food, almost.
The deep-sea life forms were discovered when researchers drilled into a layer of soft red clay at the
bottom of the Pacific Gyre.
It is an area of ocean where almost nothing reaches the seabed and most plankton that die in the
water dissolve long before any pieces of them can reach the seafloor far below.
Only very rarely does even a single particle land in any given spot on the bottom.
<a href="http://s1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/?action=view&current=article-2148313-0592CC460000044D-935_468x321.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/article-2148313-0592CC460000044D-935_468x321.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
Hans Roy, from Aarhus University in Denmark, who published his team's findings in this month's
Science journal, said: 'If you imagine that a grain of sediment falls on the surface, it will take a
thousand years before the next grain will sit on top of it.'
Roy was part of an expedition in 2009 to sample that ancient sediment and found living bacteria
buried in that clay - despite there being almost no nutrients down there for them to feed on.
At a rate of about 1 millimeter per 1,000 years sediment builds up on the ocean floor. So when the team
extracted their 90ft deep cores of sediment they found the ends were tens of millions of years old.
'They left the surface 86 million years ago with one lunch box, and they're still eating out of it.
'It's like they're splitting a pie, and they keep splitting in half and in half and in half, but nobody ever
eats the last crumble. It's quite remarkable.'
Roy and colleagues say these bacteria may have the world's slowest metabolism, with barely enough
oxygen and nutrients to keep them alive.
Deep-sea drilling uncovers bacteria that hasn't eaten for 86MILLION years
They haven't eaten for an incredible 86 million years - so you'd think they would be quite peckish.
But apparently not, because the hardy bacteria scientists found at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean
can live without food, almost.
The deep-sea life forms were discovered when researchers drilled into a layer of soft red clay at the
bottom of the Pacific Gyre.
It is an area of ocean where almost nothing reaches the seabed and most plankton that die in the
water dissolve long before any pieces of them can reach the seafloor far below.
Only very rarely does even a single particle land in any given spot on the bottom.
<a href="http://s1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/?action=view&current=article-2148313-0592CC460000044D-935_468x321.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/article-2148313-0592CC460000044D-935_468x321.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
Hans Roy, from Aarhus University in Denmark, who published his team's findings in this month's
Science journal, said: 'If you imagine that a grain of sediment falls on the surface, it will take a
thousand years before the next grain will sit on top of it.'
Roy was part of an expedition in 2009 to sample that ancient sediment and found living bacteria
buried in that clay - despite there being almost no nutrients down there for them to feed on.
At a rate of about 1 millimeter per 1,000 years sediment builds up on the ocean floor. So when the team
extracted their 90ft deep cores of sediment they found the ends were tens of millions of years old.
'They left the surface 86 million years ago with one lunch box, and they're still eating out of it.
'It's like they're splitting a pie, and they keep splitting in half and in half and in half, but nobody ever
eats the last crumble. It's quite remarkable.'
Roy and colleagues say these bacteria may have the world's slowest metabolism, with barely enough
oxygen and nutrients to keep them alive.
