A new discovery reveals that the Chicxulub asteroid, which struck the Earth 66 million years ago and devastated 76% of all species, wiping out most life on Earth was also a hotbed for bacteria. The findings were published last month in the journal Geology.
The impact of the Chicxulub asteroid was so devastating, it destroyed nearly all of the planet's vegetation. As the dust clouded the atmosphere and blocked the Sun, photosynthesis slowed and phytoplankton in oceans stopped producing oxygen. The asteroid even left about a humongous, dark and extremely hot crater.
But even after very less probability left for any life form to thrive back, microbacteria swept back into the crater following the days, weeks and decades of the catastrophe. It’s a major discovery from a geological point of view.
Millions of years after the asteroid struck, geologists have managed to drill back into the center of the crater and knit together a complete timeline, based on the biomarkers left behind by microbacteria.
The discovery is very consistent with what is already known about bacteria today -- they can grow anywhere. Bacteria are some of the most resilient organisms on Earth. They've been found lodged within ice, in deep underground caves and hidden within hot springs.
Basically, the first survivors, the first inhabitants of the crater, were microbes. Later, these microbes paved the way for higher orders of life.
According to the report, the microbial communities in the crater remained in a "constant state of dynamic flux" in the millions of years that followed, calling the activity in the crater "post-apocalyptic microbial mayhem."
Image Credits – SciTechDaily
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