Prehistoric Algae Dormant For 7,000 Years Set Record For Longest Resurrection

Scientists Bring Prehistoric Algae Back to Life

Green algae blooms swirling around the Baltic Sea. Credit: European Space Agency / CC BY-SA 2.0 Scientists have revived prehistoric algae that lay dormant for nearly 7,000 years at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, offering new insight into how microscopic life can survive extreme conditions for millennia. Researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research, in collaboration with the Universities of Rostock and Constance, made the discove…

Prehistoric Algae Dormant For 7,000 Years Set Record For Longest Resurrection

Algae that have lain dormant at the bottom of the Baltic Sea since 2,000 years before the Egyptians started building pyramids are now reproducing.

It “slept” in the waters of the Baltic Sea for about seven thousand years. Why did scientists from the Leibniz Institute wake up the Skeletonema marinoi diatom? To travel to the future!

For over seven thousand years, dormant algae have been lying on the bottom of the Baltic Sea, buried under layers of sediment, without access to light or oxygen. German scientists have made an extraordinary discovery – they have managed to bring them back to life.

The team of researchers also analyzed other sedimentary components to better understand the past conditions of the sea, such as temperature, salinity and oxygen levels. (RT in Spanish)- Scientists have managed to resurrect aquatic organisms after spending almost 7,000 years buried in the mud of the Baltic Sea, without light or oxygen. [...]

Resurrection Of A Diatom After 7,000 Years From Anoxic Baltic Sea Sediment - Astrobiology

Dormancy is a widespread key life history trait observed across the tree of life. Many plankton species form dormant cell stages that accumulate in aquatic sediments and, under anoxic conditions, form chronological records of past species and population dynamics under changing environmental conditions. Here we report on the germination of a microscopic alga, the abundant […] The post Resurrection Of A Diatom After 7,000 Years From Anoxic Baltic …