---
title: "Scientists Revive 100-Million-Year-Old Lifeforms"
description: "After scientists gave them a little snack, some 101.5-million-year-old bacteria sprang back to life after an extremely long nap. Researchers from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology dug up chunks of clay from 70 meters beneath the ocean floor. They injected it with sugar and ammonia and, to their surprise, Ars […]"
date: "2020-07-30"
modified: "2020-07-30"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientists-revive-million-year-old-lifeforms"
categories:
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "ancient life"
  - "bacteria"
  - "oceanography"
  - "the digest"
---

# Scientists Revive 100-Million-Year-Old Lifeforms

![After being dragged to the surface and fed a little snack, ancient oceanic bacteria from over 100 million years ago sprang back to life.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/scientists-revive-million-year-old-lifeforms.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: IODP/USIO\</em\>*

## Wakey Wakey

After scientists gave them a little snack, some 101.5-million-year-old bacteria sprang back to life after an extremely long nap.

Researchers from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology dug up chunks of clay from 70 meters beneath the ocean floor. They injected it with sugar and ammonia and, to their surprise, *[Ars Technica ](<https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/07/these-bacteria-may-have-survived-100-million-year-isolation/>)*[reports](<https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/07/these-bacteria-may-have-survived-100-million-year-isolation/>) that colonies of bacteria quickly chowed down on the meal. It's a bizarre discovery, and one that suggests that organisms can survive [more inhospitable environments](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/mine-ocean-floor-erase-ecosystems>) than scientists thought.

## Wake Me Up

Most shocking — even more shocking than ancient bacteria surviving this long — is that the bacteria found in the clay were mostly aerobic.

According [to the study](<https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17330-1>), which was published Tuesday in the journal *Nature Communications*, the bacteria needed oxygen to live. Without it, bacterial growth quickly stopped. But there's almost no oxygen to be found at the seafloor, especially under 70 meters of clay.

## It's Alive!

It's technically possible that younger, more modern bacteria could have seeped down into the clay, *Ars Technica* reports, but the scientists think it was too densely packed to allow that.

"What we found was that life extends all the way from the seafloor to the underlying rocky basement," University of Rhode Island oceanographer and study co-author Steven D'Hondt said in [an accompanying video](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUCai1MHHNg>). "And what \[lead author Yuki Morono's\] paper now shows is that those organisms are not only alive in the deepest form of sediment, but they're capable of growing and dividing."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUCai1MHHNg

**READ MORE:** [Bacteria live despite burial in seafloor mud for 100 million years](<https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/07/these-bacteria-may-have-survived-100-million-year-isolation/>) \[*Ars Technica*\]

**More on ancient history:** *[Scientists Say Ancient Earth Was Completely Covered in Water](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientists-ancient-earth-completely-covered-water>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)