20 millon year old flea discovered preserved in amber

[Ninurta]

I wonder what the oldest human infecting pathogen specimen ever cultured is?

There was, a couple of years ago, an archaeologist digging in the permafrost of either Alaska or the Yukon. I don't recall which, but it was North American permafrost. Apparently, he got some of the mud in a scratch on his leg, and 40,000 year old bacteria revived. In his leg. As I recall, it was a flesh eating bacterium, and the archaeologist was hospitalized over it.

So we know that at least 40,000 year old bacteria can be revived to rock our world.

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