Research revealed that microbe is the oldest organism alive today. Sponge are the oldest species alive at more than 760 million years.
People gets curious figuring out the oldest thing "alive" today. Later they found out that bacteria have been alive and active for their entire life spans. The research conducted in 2009 of a small team had revived 120,000 microbes called Herminiimonas glacie, Live Science reported.
The said microbes were found below a glacier in Greenland. The microbe was said to be blocked beneath the ice for thousands of years. Scientists believe that the discovery of these microbes is a clue to finding the existence of life on Earth.
The microbes are dormant meaning that they are in a spore-like state. And there's a possibility that the block of ice where they have been found are the main cause of their slow metabolism. Unlike other bacteria, they did not reproduce much or replicate.
On the other hand, extremely old fossils of different species were found. The horseshoe crab was found to be around for 450 million years and until today still lives. Scientists thought that the horseshoe crab was the oldest living species today, up until a 760 million years old sponge was discovered.
However, according to Wonderopolis, the sponge is slightly different from the exact species in its modern form. Scientists also believe that this sponge along with other extremely old fossils of jellyfish and nautilus which were found are clues. It may be possible that there are even older fossils which haven't yet discovered.
Aside from Herminiimonas glacie microbes, there are other groups of bacteria which have been found living for billions of years until today. Organisms like the cyanobacteria and blue-green algae were believed being around for billions of years where life started. Hence, there is no discovery yet of the oldest of all living organism or species on the planet, these recent discoveries are the leads.
