Re: 25 million-year-old bacterium [Fwd: ProMED]

["Terry Colvin" <colvint@CC.IMS.DISA.MIL>]

See SCIENCE, 268:1060-1064, 19 May 1995.  The paper by
Raul J Cano and Monica K Borucki is entitled "Revival
and Identification of Bacterial Spores in 25- to
40-Million-Year-Old Dominican Amber."  The abstract
reads, in part, "A bacterial spore was revived,
cultured, and identified from the abdominal contents of
extinct bees preserved for 25 to 40 million years in
buried Dominican amber.  Rigorous surface
decontamination of the amber and aseptic procedures were
used during the recovery of the bacterium.  Several
lines of evidence indicated that the isolated bacterium
was of ancient origin and not an extant contaminant."

What next, dinosaurs?

- Mary