For a billion years, single-celled eukaryotes ruled the planet. Then around 700 million years ago during Snowball Earth — a geologic era when glaciers may have stretched as far as […]
While microbial communities in limestone caves across the world are relatively understood, knowledge of the microbial composition in lava tubes is lagging behind. These caves are found in volcanic regions […]
Abstract: Life on our planet likely evolved in the ocean, and thus exo-oceans are key habitats to search for extraterrestrial life. We conducted a data-driven bibliographic survey on the astrobiology […]
Transparent sea cucumbers, bowl-shaped sponges, and pink sea pigs are some of the fascinating animals discovered during a deep-sea expedition to the Pacific Ocean.
![Pyrite sulfur δ34S values as a function of the natural logarithm of pore water sulfate concentration (r2 = 0.52). Colors correspond to TOC concentration. The solid black line is the line of best fit, with the equation y = −8.4ln([SO4]) − 3.4. The two dashed black lines are parallel to the line of best fit and run 20 ‰ above it and 16 ‰ below it. -- Johns Hopkins University](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/An-Unlikely-Hero-In.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
One of Earth’s most consequential bursts of biodiversity—a 30-million-year period of explosive evolutionary changes spawning innumerable new species—may have the most modest of creatures to thank for the vital stage […]
Subsurface environments constitute one of Earth’s largest habitats for microbial life, yet differences between surface and subsurface microbiomes and between marine and terrestrial microbiomes remain unclear.
Lanzarote (Canary Islands, Spain) is one of the best terrestrial analogs to Martian volcanology. Particularly, Lanzarote lava tubes may offer access to recognizably preserved chemical and morphological biosignatures valuable for […]
Communities of microorganisms at the bottom of polar lakes evolved independently from other regions, influenced by the particular geological, biological and climate history of their regions. The unique character of […]
Radiolarians are significant contributors to the oceanic primary productivity and the global silica cycle in the last 500 Myr. Their diversity throughout the Phanerozoic shows periodic fluctuations.
Editor’s note: when we begin to robotically explore the ice-covered oceans of Enceladus, Europa, Ganymede, Mimas etc. we’ll need to make the most of the visits. Learning how to best […]
