Scientists Say Deep-sea Microorganism Hasn't Evolved in Over 2 Billion Years

Posted on February 3, 2015

Scientists have discovered the 1.8-billion-year-old fossil of a deep-sea microorganism off the coast of Western Australia. The scientists say the sulfur-cycling microorganism appears to have not evolved in over 2 billion years. The fossil bearing rock is pictured above.

The bacteria in the fossil was compared to bacteria from a 2.3 billion year old fossil. The ancient bacteria in both fossils was found to be indistinguishable from modern sulfur bacteria found in mud off of the coast of Chile.

J. William Schopf, a UCLA professor of earth, planetary and space sciences and lead author of the study, says in a statement, "It seems astounding that life has not evolved for more than 2 billion years -- nearly half the history of the Earth. Given that evolution is a fact, this lack of evolution needs to be explained."

Schopf says the reason for the lack of change in the species for such a long period of time is that the environment the creatures live in has not changed much for 3 billion years. He says, "These microorganisms are well-adapted to their simple, very stable physical and biological environment. If they were in an environment that did not change but they nevertheless evolved, that would have shown that our understanding of Darwinian evolution was seriously flawed."

Schopf also says, "The rule of biology is not to evolve unless the physical or biological environment changes, which is consistent with Darwin."

A research paper on the ancient bacteria can be found here in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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