12. 50,000-year-old Life Found in Cave Crystals
Location: Mexico’s Cave of Crystals, Naica
Year Found: 2017
Est. Value: Incalculable
The stunning Cave of Crystals in Naica, Mexico, is largely undiscovered due to extremely high temperatures. Nonetheless, it was shown in 2017 that life as old as 50,000 years may have existed in some of the crystals found in the Naica Caves.
50,000-year-old Life Found in Cave Crystals @CBC/Pinterest
No, the life isn’t some small green extraterrestrial. It is made up of long-extinct microorganisms that are dormant and feed on iron and manganese minerals. These bacteria, according to NASA’s Penelope Boston, head of the Astrobiologist Institute, are “super life,” able to endure in the harshest environments on Earth. Scientists had to put on ice packs and semi-space suits in order to enter the Naica caverns and investigate this phenomenon.