Researchers from the American Geological Society announced, for the first time, their discovery of a tiny remnant of primitive life, an 830-million-year-old rock-core crystal containing algae called halite, earlier this month.
The researchers now want to open the crystal to discover whether this ancient life is still alive.
Dr. said. Kathy Bennison, a professor of geology at West Virginia University and an author of the study, said: “The researchers used a selection of imaging techniques to study fluid inclusions in the halite piece.” Crystallized rock salt is unable to sustain ancient life on its own, so potential microorganisms are not trapped within the crystals, like an ant trapped in amber but rather alive, according to the scientists.
In a video clip, the scientists observed how a bubble can be seen inside the crystal while the researcher gently moves it, and it is inside this small fluid-filled cavity in which the potential signals of life, which lives by metabolic changes, were found.