Originally published at: 100-million-year-old seafloor sediment bacteria have been resuscitated | Boing Boing
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I, for one, welcome our new prehistoric bacteria overlords.
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“what could possibly go wrong?”
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Bet that smelled yummy.
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Right? They even mention Lovecraft.
Reinvigorated eldritch ooze was not on my bingo card.
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That’s quite extraordinary, given that polynucleotides in fossilized matter usually have a half-life in the order of magnitude of tens of thousands of years.
My first question upon reading the pop-sci articles was: “how did they make sure these samples were not cross-contaminated from upper sediment layers?” Luckily, I found the original Nature paper and the answer was in the Materials & Methods section:
Whole-round core samples of U1365C 8H-2 (obtained from 68.9 meters below seafloor [mbsf]), 95.4 Ma), > U1365C 9H-3 (74.5 mbsf), U1368D 1H-2 (1.6 mbsf), 1368D 2H-5 (14.7 mbsf), and U1370F 7H-6 (62.9 mbsf) were used for incubation experiments as described in the following section. Those samples were from horizons with no observable coring disturbance by visual core description. Drilling fluid contamination assessment by chemical tracer revealed minimal drilling contamination of the samples (≤1 cell/ g-sediment for U1365C 8H-2 and 1368D 2H-5, below detection to 0 cell/g-sediment for U1365C 9H-3, U1368D 1H-2, and U1370F 7H-6).
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The really interesting bit about “revived” ancient bacteria is the possibility that some micro-organisms live in extremely low-nutrient environments by having extremely slow metabolisms, a state of life so minimal that it would be indistinguishable from “death” in any other organism.
Rather appropriate that Lovecraft put Cthulhu at that location, because what’s the line? “That is not dead which can eternal lie.” That’s… disturbingly appropriate.
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I wonder what it smelled like too. I would sniff it, would you? Anaerobic I assume, so is it stinky like a tomb?
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but I like Marmite!
wonder if the ice cream truck will carry those…
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If Earth bacteria can survive in outer space…
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If you live near a tidal bay, or marsh, at low tide that smell [see below] is the bacteria being exposed to o2. I’ve a reasonable certainty that the smell would be some what similar, and very sure it would be much stronger.
The rather stale, sulphury smell is dimethyl sulphide, produced by bacteria as they digest dead phytoplankton. At low tide , you’ll also smell chemicals called dictyopterenes, which are sex pheromones produced by seaweed eggs to attract the sperm.
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@FloridaManJefe “ what could possibly go wrong? ”
So my daughter and I were (re-)watching “Death to 2020” on Netflix (a charming retrospective on the year in which I think Samuel L Jackson kind of stole the show)…
We looked at each other and agreed they had wrapped it up too soon: January 6th would have been a better bookend…
…although now it seems we spoke too soon. 
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Oh, nothing interesting from space would’ve fallen into the ocean 100 million years ago. So, there’s no need for me to worry about the whereabouts of Japanese research team members while rewatching The Thing tonight.
Right?
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I always know when the tide is low without looking at a clock.
The nose knows.
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What the actual fuck?!
gags
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Sooo they are like republicans!!! This explains a lot…
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Does the marmite truck carry ice cream?? Idle prying minds wanna know. 
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