Deep below the seafloor, locked in a layer of 100-million-year-old sediment, a lifeform quietly lives. It's not quite Godzilla, nor a long-lost Megalodon, but it does go to show how life on Earth can dwell under the most extreme and bizarre circumstances. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

Scientists discovered that communities of microbes living beneath the seafloor are able to survive in rock sediments for over 100 million years with desperately little nutrients. After being coaxed under the right conditions in a lab, the ancient microbes are even able to snap out of their “hibernation” to metabolize and multiply once again.

Reported in the journal Nature Communications back in July 2020, researchers from Japan Agency

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