A team of scientist has discovered a remarkabletype of deep - ocean bacteriumthat appears to have remain essentially unchanged for over 2 billion years . To put that into perspective , that ’s almost half the geezerhood of our planet . Interestingly , rather than negate Darwin ’s theory of phylogeny , this example of extreme stasis actually loan support to Darwinian evolution .
As delineate in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesjournal , the discovery was made afterUCLAscientists analyse ancient community of interests of dodo bacterium preserved in 1.8 - billion - year - old sway from the coast of Western Australia . Using a combining of spectroscopic and microscopic technique , the researchers were able to win an insight into the composition and interpersonal chemistry of the rocks , and also produce 3D double of the germ inside .
These data reveal that the microorganisms , which are sulfur - cycling bacterium , are well-nigh very to another biotic community of fossil germ 500 million years sr. and discovered in 2.3 - billion - twelvemonth - old stone , once again from an ancient coastal formation in Western Australia . what is more , both of these communities are almost indistinguishable from New atomic number 16 - cycling bacterium set up in mud off the coast of South America .
Given that evolution is well substantiated , how can this good example of evident stasis be explained ? Interestingly , it actually supports an authoritative aspect of Darwinian evolution . Asdescribedin the publication:“If there is no change in the physical - biological environment of a well - adapted ecosystem , its biotic components should likewise stay unaltered . ”
In other word , if an being is well adapted to its environs , and this surroundings does not exchange , then there is no need to evolve . Indeed , the environment in which these microbes reside has remained essentially unaltered for some 3 billion old age . Conversely , if the microbes did evolve in spite of a stable , stable environment , then this would be discrepant with the theory of organic evolution .
“ The dominion of biology is not to evolve unless the physical or biological environment changes , which is consistent with Darwin,”Schopf explain . Of course , in the absence of deoxyribonucleic acid sequence datum , it is impossible to assert that they have not evolved at all . However , the morphologic data obtained would suggest that they have changed very little over time .
The ancient fogy identify in the study date back to shortly after a period that change the story of life on Earth : the “ Great Oxidation Event , ” which occur some 2.4 to 2.2 - billion - years - ago . Early on in our planet ’s history , Earth ’s atm was devoid of atomic number 8 . But during this mankind - changing result , atmospherical concentrations of oxygen begin to rise to appreciable level . Concomitantly , levels of sulfate and nitrate also dramatically increased , which deep ocean , mud - lie organisms would have prosper on .
[ ViaUCLA , PNASandio9 ]
