MARVELS OF NEWLY-FOUND FOSSIL BACTERIA

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 75, 22 December 1920, Page 9

MARVELS OF NEWLY-FOUND FOSSIL BACTERIA

Marvellous as were the discoveries of such prehistoric monsters as the mammoth, the mastodon, and tho stegosaiirus. tliev aTO now eclipsed by rotent investigations which show the most minute microbes and bacteria in fossil form, says an exchange. The ancestors of our modern infections disease germs and microbes have been found m fossils of the earliest life on tho enrtft. Fossil bacteria have been discovered in. vorv ancient limestones collected by f)r riinrip., T). }T"lcntt. secretary of the Smithsonian ' Institution, m Gallatin it>- 110" l wn. T'or some time Mr. Walcott has believed that these bacteria existed.' and tnent'on of the, fact win made recently before the Botanical Society of Washington, when attention was called to tlieiv existence in association with fossil algal deposits of the Newland limestone. . .. The belief that bacteria were the most important factor in the disposition of these nncient limestones was also mention»d by Dr. Walcott in a preliminary publication of the Smithsonian Institution. At that time, no definite Ucltriu had. been discovered, tot m Urn sections of limestone from the lolhc tons made in 19U tho microscope now shows these very minute forms vf lift). 20.n00,000 to V 50,000.000 vcars old. _ _ Tho bacteria were discovered in threu sections rut from. an algal form "ic™'™ under the generic name of Gallatinut, named after the great American explorer. Gallatin. The bacteria consist of Hidividual cells mid apparent f chaws of colls which corresnond in their pliyslcnl app€orfWKC» with tlie ceUfi of micTococi, a form of bacteria of to-day. Tho world has believed that were modern forms of life, but J JOW are made to realise that they existed nt tho dawn of world history, many million jfearc a«o.