Episode 480: Old, Old Life

Episode 480: Old, Old Life

From Strange Animals Podcast by Katherine Shaw

April 13, 2026 · 8 min

About this episode

This episode explores some of the oldest life forms discovered, focusing on endoliths and their unique habitats.

Let’s learn about some of the oldest life ever discovered! Further reading: Microbiologists Find Living Microbes in 2-Billion-Year-Old Rock Chart of life extended by nearly 1.5 billion years Show transcript: Back in episode 168 we talked about the longest-lived organisms known, and finished the episode by discussing endoliths. I’ll quote from that episode as a refresher. An endolith isn’t a particular animal or even a group of related animals. An endolith is an organism that lives inside a rock or other rock-like substance, such as coral. Some are fungi, some lichens, some amoebas, some bacteria, and various other organisms, many of them single-celled and all of them very small if not microscopic. Some live in tiny cracks in a rock, some live in porous rocks that have space between grains of mineral, some bore into the rock. Many are considered extremophiles, living in rocks inside Antarctic permafrost, at the tops of the highest mountains, in the abyssal depths of the oceans, and at least two miles, or 3 km, below the earth’s surface. Various endoliths eat different minerals, including potassium, sulfur, and iron. Some endoliths even eat other endoliths. We don’t know a…

People in this episode

Host: Katherine Shaw

Topics covered

  • oldest life
  • endoliths
  • extremophiles
  • microbiology
  • ancient organisms

Keywords

  • endoliths
  • extremophiles
  • ancient life
  • microbes
  • 2-billion-year-old rock

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Microbiologists

Books & works: Episode 168

More episodes of Strange Animals Podcast

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Strange Animals Podcast podcast page.