Researchers from the University of California in Los Angeles believe they might have discovered a microorganism that has not undergone any form of evolution for more than two billion years. The discovery essentially amounts to the longest ever absence of evolution in a single species.
UCLA professor of earth planetary and space sciences, William Schopf, has stated that it seems the microorganisms remained well adapted to their very simple yet stable physical and biological environment over the years.
The professor goes on to state that had the microorganisms been, in an environment that did not change but evolved themselves then, Darwin’s theory would have been put to question for being flaw. Darwin theory purports that organisms will always remain the same, unless there are some changes in their physical and biological environment.
Surface environments according to the professor are constantly changing consequently resulting in the biology change of organisms. The fact that the muds underneath the ocean remain undisturbed with fairly no signal from the environment above goes to show why the microorganism did not evolve in the more than 200 billion years.
The research team used a number of methods to investigate the age of the microbes, as well as their potential evolutionary impact. Some of the techniques used include Raman Spectroscopy that allows scientists to look inside rocks and determine their chemistry and composition.
Proceedings of the research published by the National Academy of Science suggest that the organisms survived five mass extinction events. The researchers had examined the microorganisms in samples of rocks discovered from the coastal waters of Western Australia.
Having carried tests also on samples of bacteria on the rocks thought to be 2.3 billion years, the researchers concluded that samples of the same bacteria remained indistinguishable from modern sulfur bacteria found on the coast of Chile. The findings essentially support Charles Darwin’s theory that evolution only occurs by Natural selection.