Scientists Discovered the Tunnels of a Possibly Unknown Ancient Lifeform
Mysterious micro-burrows in desert marble and limestone were probably made by microbes that lived millions of years ago. Exactly what kind of microbes bored into the rock remains unknown, as does whether they still exist or have long since gone extinct. Whatever formed the burrows had to be alive, since researchers were able to rule out weathering and abiotic processes. For most organisms on Earth, rocks are objects, not food. But for one oddball microbe, desert limestone seems to have been on the menu. Whether or not this mysterious form of life still exists or went extinct eons ago is, however, yet unknown. Recently, geologist Cees Passchier from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz came across what looked like tiny burrows in marble and limestone in the deserts of Namibia, Oman, and Saudi Arabia. Erosion had exposed the fossil burrows, and while nothing was crawling in there anymore, Passchier and his research team investigated further and found biological material inside. “A biotic ...
