scientist from UCLA have discovered a deep - ocean micro-organism that ’s the same today as it was two billion year ago . It ’s an observation that in reality bolster Darwin ’s theory of natural survival , while offering the most extreme example of phylogeny ’s “ void hypothesis . ”
A blurb from the study ’s precis , which appears in the latest version of PNAS , puts it nicely :
An ancient abstruse - ocean clay - inhabiting [ 1.8 billion - yr - sometime ] S - cycling microbial community from Western Australia is fundamentally superposable both to a fogey community 500 million years older and to advanced microbic biology discovered off the coast of South America in 2007 .
Which is incredible when you mean about it . This bacteria has n’t evolve for nearly half the story of Earth .
The microorganisms , which were preserved in rock’n’roll from Western Australia ’s coastal waters , are near indistinguishable from modern sulfur bacterium regain in mud off the sea-coast of Chile . The uncovering lends credence to the “ void guess ” of phylogeny , which states that , “ if there is no variety in the forcible - biologic surroundings of a well - adapted organism , its biotic components should similarly remain unchanged . ”
In other words , if an animal ’s environmental fortune do n’t change , and the beast is already well - adapted to that surroundings , there ’s no need to specify what ai n’t broke . And indeed , the mucky , deep - sea surroundings in which these microorganisms live has n’t transfer for three billion year .
“ The rule of biological science is not to develop unless the physical or biologic environment changes , which is consistent with Darwin , ” noted J. William Schopf ina UCLA tone ending . “ These microorganism are well - adapted to their simple , very stable physical and biologic surround . If they were in an surround that did not shift but they nevertheless develop , that would have shown that our understanding of Darwinian development was gravely flawed . ”
This discovery also shows howevolutionary drift , in such strict circumstances , does n’t work to bring forth adaption . Like any community over time , these microorganism are likely receive wasted ( or “ electroneutral ” ) variation . But in this surroundings , mutations and genetic drift do n’t go very far , and t the organisms will revert back to their “ optimum ” mood .
touch on : Can evolution still happen without competition?|50,000 generations of bacterium prove that evolution never stops
Can phylogeny still happen without contest ?
50,000 generation of bacterium prove that evolution never stops
The fossils date back to the Great Oxidation Event — about 2.2 to 2.4 billion years ago — when there was a substantial rise in our major planet ’s oxygen . The process also generated a striking step-up in sulfate and nitrate , which are the only nutrients the microorganisms would have require to survive and which start the bacterium to flourish and multiply .
record the entire study at PNAS : “ Sulfur - cycling fossil bacteria from the 1.8 - Ga Duck Creek Formation leave bright evidence of evolution ’s null hypothesis “ .
Images : UCLA Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life .
Related:12 of the most astounding ‘ living fossils ’ known to science
12 of the most staggering ‘ aliveness fossils ’ known to science
AstrobiologyBacteriaBiologyEvolutionScience
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