Life on Earth may have developed below rather than above ground, reveal scientists .

[dipsydoodle]

How life on Earth came into existence is still one of the greatest mysteries in science but new research into the “deep biosphere” indicates that the first replicating life-forms on the planet may have originated deep underground rather than, as commonly believed, on the surface.

Scientists have now discovered microbes living and reproducing as deep as 5km (3.1 miles) below ground and studies have shown that they are likely to have survived in complete isolation from the surface biosphere for millions and perhaps even billions of years.

One of the latest studies into the deep biosphere has found that these microbes form a distinct subsurface community of genetically similar individuals despite living on opposite sides of the world. This global similarity of such an isolated life-form suggests that they may have evolved directly from a common ancestor that lived as long ago at the period when life on earth originated, some 3.5 billion years ago.

An increasing number of researchers believe that life could have first got going in the tiny cracks of underground rocks, fuelled not by the energy of sunlight but by chemical fuel in the form of hydrogen and methane which can be produced in certain types of rock under high temperatures and pressures.

The latest discovery of a closely-related, global community of microbes in the deep biosphere lends further support to the idea that life originated not in the “primordial soup” of surface lakes and seas, but in the tiny water-filled fissures found in underground rock, said Matt Schrenk of Michigan State University.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/life-on-earth-may-have-developed-below-rather-than-above-ground-reveal-scientists-8991601.html

[Berlum]

1. Hollywood documented this over 50 years ago

[Warren DeMontague]

2. That, to my mind, would increase the odds of it being found under the ice on Europa, etc.

If the processes leading to the formation of life tend from the inside-out. Those high pressure/chemical energy situations are probably fairly common.

[Enthusiast]

4. I considered the same thing.

Simple life forms might turn out to be far more common than we suspect.

[PeoViejo]

3. Life on Earth will probably end Underground

Last edited Mon Dec 9, 2013, 06:43 PM - Edit history (1)

....as we try to shield ourselves from increasing temperatures, Solar Radiation and poisoned Atmosphere.

[LiberalEsto]

5. I thought life originated in my refrigerator

It's all green and blue and fuzzy

[byronius]

6. That's a Big Deal.

Talk about paradigm shift.

[DhhD]

7. Life could be under dried up lakes on Mars.

Perhaps life might be found in fissures near moving plates on Mars.

http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/ucla-scientist-discovers-plate-237303.aspx

[dipsydoodle]

8. Bacteria can withstand most extremes.

Maybe life there hasn't gone - its yet to come.