By Vania Raebel | October 9, 2019
The Million-Year-Old Bacteria
One of the stranger things discovered by scientists buried deep in ice is a really really old type of bacteria. In fact, some of these specimens are about 25 million years old. Another type of bacteria also found covered in ice was dated at around eight million years old. This makes them some of the oldest surviving organisms in the world.
Note that only a specific kind of bacteria can survive these frigid arctic conditions, though. For bacteria to be able to endure such intense levels of cold, it has to be capable of producing spores. These spores initiate the process of hibernation. During hibernation, the bacteria become immune to any destructive factors that may be thrown at them.
