Unexpectedly discovered 'super life' up to 50,000 years old

What if the forms of prehistoric life challenged time and survived to this day? What do they look like? And what's more important is how long have they survived?

According to CGTN, scientists recently discovered the 50,000-year-old life stuck in crystals inside a cave in Mexico. However, they are very, very small in size: they are microorganisms .

Penelope Boston, head of NASA's Space Biological Research Institute, said the microbes were found in "dormant" states, surviving on minerals such as manganese or iron.

Boston presented this discovery last Friday at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference.

Scientists have discovered life 50,000 years old.(Source: cgtn.com).

Boston was not authorized to share its work for external evaluation purposes before it was announced on Friday. Therefore, this discovery has never been published on any of the previous scientific journals.

Although not yet revealed many things about this great discovery, Boston said the discovery is a great example of how microorganisms live in extremely harsh conditions.

40 different strains of microorganisms and some viruses have been discovered. They are so unusual that their closest relatives are genetically 10% different from them, that is, their relatives are quite far away, equivalent to the gap between humans and mushrooms, Boston said.

50,000 years seem eternal if measured by human life, but that is not the longest life of a life ever discovered by scientists.

According to Boston, a few years ago, a group of other scientists published studies of microorganisms trapped in ice and salt, which could last up to half a million years and still survive.

These microorganisms are in a state of "hibernation" , survived by minerals like manganese or iron.(Source: cgtn.com).

The lifespan of Naica microorganisms is determined by experts by looking at the locations of microorganisms in the crystals and observing how fast these crystals grow.

However, these microorganisms are not the only odd form of life that Boston is studying. She is also learning about microorganisms commonly found in caves in the US, Ukraine and elsewhere, they consume copper sulfate and seem to be unable to be destroyed.

These ancient creatures survived the time and harsh masterpieces to become living examples of a "super life" in the near future.

As Boston said: "It is simply another illustration of the difficulty of life on Earth."