A Survivor in Greenland: A Novel Bacterial Species is Found Trapped in 120,000-Year-Old Ice

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A scanning electron microscope image of the Chryseobacterium greenlandensis bacteria found in a Greenland glacier. Credit: Jennifer Loveland-Curtze Penn State
A scanning electron microscope image of the Chryseobacterium greenlandensis bacteria found in a Greenland glacier. Credit: Jennifer Loveland-Curtze, Penn State

A team of Penn State scientists has discovered a new ultra-small species of bacteria that has survived for more than 120,000 years within the ice of a Greenland glacier at a depth of nearly two miles. The microorganism's ability to persist in this low-temperature, high-pressure, reduced-oxygen, and nutrient-poor habitat makes it particularly useful for studying how life, in general, can survive in a variety of extreme environments on Earth and possibly elsewhere in the solar system.


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7 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
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Oct 06, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
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Oct 06, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
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Oct 06, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
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