Unknown ancient Lifeform discovered

 Discovery of a possibly unknown ancient Lifeform in the strange stone tunnels by Geologists

Scientists discovered unusual, narrow tunnels within ancient desert rocks in Namibia, Oman and Saudi Arabia. These parallel channels are unlike typical geological formations. Researchers are exploring the possibility that microorganisms, known to live inside rocks, created these ordered pathways. This finding could expand our understanding of life in extreme environments and guide the search for extraterrestrial life. Following are the some of the important points:-

Mysterious micro-burrows in desert marble and limestone were probably made by microbes that lived millions of years ago.

Exactly what kind of microbes bored into the rock remains unknown, as does whether they still exist or have long since gone extinct.

Whatever formed the burrows had to be alive, since researchers were able to rule out weathering and abiotic processes.

For most organisms on Earth, rocks are objects, not food. But for one oddball microbe, desert limestone seems to have been on the menu. Whether or not this mysterious form of life still exists or went extinct eons ago is, however, yet unknown. Geologist Cees Passchier from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz came across what looked like tiny burrows in marble and limestone in the deserts of Namibia, Oman and Saudi Arabia. Erosion had exposed the fossil burrows, and while nothing was crawling in there anymore, Passchier and his research team investigated further and found biological material inside. These parallel channels are unlike typical geological formations.

The deserts of Namibia, Oman and Saudi Arabia don’t give away much easily. Stand there long enough, and it feels like nothing has changed for thousands of years. Wind pushes sand across open land. Heat presses down. Marble and limestone rise out of the ground in pale, silent ridges. Which is why what scientists found inside some of those rocks feels so unexpected. They weren’t looking for life. They were studying stone. Instead, they noticed thin tunnels running through solid rock. Not wide cracks. Not jagged fractures. These were narrow passages, barely half a millimeter across, stretching up to 3 cm's in length. Even more curious, they appeared in parallel lines, neat, repeated, almost measured. “A biotic origin of the observed structures supposes the presence of liquid water, without which biological growth would be impossible,” the team said. “The investigated areas are currently arid, but experience occasional rain showers and regular dense coastal fog, while wet periods occurred in the past.” The structures were documented by Professor Cees Passchier from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and described this in the Geomicrobiology Journal. His team called them “micro-burrows” because they didn’t fit with known geological processes. When stone splits under pressure, it follows stress patterns. When water erodes it, the surface turns rough and uneven. These channels are different. They are smooth inside. They run in the same direction. They appear in groups. Some of the tunnels even contain calcium carbonate and faint chemical traces which could hint at biological material. That’s where the conversation shifts. Not dramatically, but quietly. Could something have moved through this rock?

So, what type of microogranisms could have made the burrows? Bacteria, fungi and lichens have shown that they can survive extreme conditions, and some of them are endolithic, meaning they live inside rocks. Passchier wanted to see if the organisms that created the burrows could possibly belong to any of these groups. Fungi can bore through rocks and leave behind tubes, and some types of cyanobacteria also thrive off limestone or marble. Scientists have known for decades that microbes can live inside rock. Endoliths survive in extreme conditions by taking shelter within the stone itself. Earlier, researcher Geoffrey Michael Gadd described how certain bacteria and fungi draw nutrients directly from minerals. In simple terms, they extract energy from the rock. In Antarctica and some of the driest deserts on Earth, these microbes live just beneath the surface. The rock shields them from ultraviolet radiation and temperature swings. They grow slowly, sometimes so slowly that their activity unfolds over geological timescales. But there’s a difference here. Known endolithic activity usually leaves irregular textures rather than long, parallel channels. The desert tunnels appear more ordered than what scientists typically observe. Researchers are now asking whether chemotaxis could play a role. Chemotaxis is the ability of microorganisms to move toward chemical signals. An earlier review by Wadhams and Armitage explains how microbes can respond to chemical gradients in a coordinated manner. Over long periods, movement guided by nutrients could, in theory, produce organized pathways.

It is unlikely that the mystery organisms were cyanobacteria, they need sunlight for photosynthesis, so they don’t bore nearly as deep into rock as the burrows that the team found. Fungi secrete digestive agents which were not present in the rock, and they also create a complex network of hyphae, or filaments, known as a mycelium. Mycelial networks tend to have order to them. The burrows were parallel and evenly spaced, which would be unusual for fungi, and there were no other patterns observed. So, they probably aren’t the culprits, either. Beneath our feet lies something scientists call the deep biosphere, a vast underground ecosystem which survives without sunlight. Microbial life can persist km's below the surface, sustained by chemical reactions instead of photosynthesis. If these stone tunnels turn out to be biological, they would add another piece to that picture. They would suggest that life not only survives in extreme, dry environments, but may also shape its surroundings in more structured ways than previously recognized. There’s also a planetary angle. When researchers search for past life on Mars, they often focus on subsurface environments. Surface conditions there are harsh, but underground niches may once have offered protection. Understanding how microbes interact with rock on Earth could guide what scientists look for elsewhere.

Because the burrows were found to be too wide to have only been made by one organism at a time, and they showed growth rings, its was more likely that they were formed by colonies of microbes. Calcium carbonate dust found in the tunnels is also a common excretion from microbes that live in these types of rocks. However, no fossilized organisms have yet been found, just evidence of their existence. Sometimes, a narrow tunnel in limestone carries implications which stretch far beyond one desert. Still, the researchers are careful. Geologists are trained to question first impressions. Patterns can emerge from chemistry alone. Unusual mineral reactions might produce shapes that resemble biological traces. On the contrary, while weathering or abiotic chemical processes can create structures mistaken for signs of life, a thorough microscopic examination showed this was not the case. The chemical composition of rock samples from inside the burrows showed that whatever made them had to have been alive. Psychologist Daniel Kahneman once wrote about how naturally humans connect incomplete dots. Science works by resisting that impulse. Teams are now using high-resolution imaging and chemical testing to search for organic molecules inside the channels. Laboratory experiments are being designed to see whether known microbes can reproduce similar formations under controlled conditions.

“As no known chemical or physical weathering mechanism can explain this phenomenon with the microstructural and geochemical observations presented here, and the micro-burrows form inside the host rock,” Passchier and his colleagues said, “we suggest that they are of biological origin.” For now, the tunnels remain an open question. And maybe that’s what makes them compelling. In landscapes which seem empty, in rocks that feel ancient and unchanging, there may be stories still unfolding at a scale too small to see at first glance. Sometimes discovery doesn’t arrive with a dramatic breakthrough. Sometimes it begins with someone looking closely at stone, and noticing that the lines don’t quite add up. Whatever microbes carved out the tunnels have been long dead, though there are questions around whether the mystery species still exists. Maybe it’s still creeping around somewhere, digging new tunnel systems for us to one day uncover further.