Found 3,000 species of bacteria from the Jurassic period in Mexico

Recently, a group of Mexican scientists have discovered 3,000 species of Jurassic North American endemic bacteria in some wells in Cuatrocienegas region, Coahuila state, northern Mexico.

Artwork: biojobblog.com

Gabriela Olmedo Alvarez, a scientist at Mexico's Irapuato Advanced Research Center, commented that the finding shows the biodiversity of the North American region before.

The bacteria found are also clues to the origin of life on Earth millions of years ago. Some prehistoric microorganisms are even the 'ancestors' of today's microbes like antrax, a bacterium widely used in the pharmaceutical industry.

Olmedo Alvarez noted that the current massive water extraction to irrigate crops in the Cuatrocienegas region has caused some of the wells to be at risk of drying out, including wells carrying many types of ancient bacteria. .

Currently the international scientific community is very interested in studying water resources in Cuatrocienegas, even the US Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) has launched a number of research projects to understand the occurrence of micro This creature is in North America from millions of years ago.