Mysterious life forms discovered in Hawaiian lava cave centuries ago

Hundreds of years ago, the volcanic process that created the Hawaiian Islands also formed a network of underground tunnels and caves.

Cold, dark, and full of toxic gases and metals. So, Pretty much unfriendly to most life forms.

However, scientists have discovered that these volcanic vents actually contain complex and extensive microbial colonies.

These are the smallest known living things on Earth and we don’t know much about them at all.

In fact, an estimated 99.999 percent of all types of microbes are still unknown. As a result, some people refer to this mysterious life form as “dark matter”.

However, they still make up a large amount of the Earth’s biomass.

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What interests experts in Hawaii’s lava caves is that conditions there are as close as possible to Mars or any other distant planet.

And if microbes can survive in lava tubes that are 600-800 years old, then we You may find some of them on Mars at some point.

Researchers have found that ancient lava caves, which are more than 500 years old, typically contain a much more diverse range of microbes.

Therefore, they believe that these tiny creatures took a long time to colonize the volcanic basalt. As the environment changes over time, so does the social structure.

When caves are younger and more active, the microbial colonies are closer to each other in terms of species.

“This brings us to the question, do extreme environments help create more interactive microbial communities, with microorganisms more dependent on each other?” He said Microbiologist Rebecca Prescott of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

“And if so, what about the harsh environment that helped create this?”

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Even though there’s a lot we don’t know, scientists believe competition is a stronger force in harsh environments.

“Overall, this research helps illustrate how important it is to study microbes in co-culture, rather than culturing them alone (as isolates),” added Prescott.

“In nature, microbes don’t grow in isolation. Instead, they grow, live, and interact with many other microorganisms in a sea of ​​chemical signals from those other microbes. This can alter their gene expression, affecting their function in society. . .

The results of the study were published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology.

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