A Microbial Pompeii?
Could the microbiome, a strong and
fairly complex community of microbes, really last over a thousand years?
According to researchers, the microbiome in the mouth has been preserved in the
dental plague of thousand-year-old skeletons’ teeth. Researchers are calling
this discovery the “microbial Pompeii”. These skeletons belong to the citizens
of Pompeii, who were encased and preserved under volcanic ash in AD 1100.
Microbes were discovered under the dental plague of skeletons’ teeth, and
researchers say this is because the plague is acting as a time capsule and
fossilizing, allowing it to preserve bacteria and food particles in the teeth
of ancient skeletons. Researchers have found some of these microbes to be the
same as the ones we have today.
Astonishingly,
the microbes that cause gum disease today were present on the teeth of the
skeletons with dental disease. Porphyromonas
gingivalis and Treponema denticola
are two species that were found in the teeth of these ancient skeletons, and
are also a common cause of gum disease today. From these microbes, researchers
were able to tell that the ancient citizens of Pompeii really didn’t brush
their teeth very often or at all, thus causing gum disease. So what other
microbes could we have in common with these ancient people? If researchers were
able to find the preserved microbiome in this culture of people, can they find
it in others? Is there any way that other microbes in the body, like the gut,
were also preserved? The fact that these microbes are aiding researchers to
discover more about ancient cultures is incredible. Hopefully researchers will
continue to dive into this subject and look into other historical cultures for more
microbes.http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/microbial-pompeii-found-on-1000-year-old-teeth-140225.htm
Knowing that life itself is connected deeply with microbes. Its known that they have lived longer then the dinosaur age. Many living in the soil, others living in plants. Yet coming out with the tests and research about microbes in our mouth are also the aid to preserve long aged microbes is interesting. Plaque is grown in teeth obviously and of course long when dinosaurs existed, they needed to eat and of course some result in plaque forming in the mouth. Looking at how historian cultures can be tied in with microbes in something I never thought of. Even to the microbes in our mouth can be connected to organism dating back when dinosaurs were known to exist. It is incredible to know where science and the research that follows will lead to in the future.
ReplyDeleteAnastasia, this article was really cool and interesting. It immediately makes me wonder if scientists will eventually be able to use microbes to aid them in murder investigations. I do know that they can tell how far along a body has decayed by what bugs and microorganisms have inhabited the body. I am wondering if scientists will be able to analyze the gut and mouth microbiomes to discover what happened to the victim. It is really cool that these organisms were preserved in the mouth for many years. I did not think that these tiny microbes could be fossilized and preserved. I am curious as to how they found the microbes in the mouth. I am amazed that science can eventually help us understand ancient cultures and how they lived. Microbes seem extremely small and insignificant but everyday they are helping us digest foods and they are causing bad breath. They are always going to be a part of our lives it will be great when we can truly appreciate and learn from them.
ReplyDeleteThis is pretty cool of an article your read. I find that these microbes’ that were fossilized is pretty amazing. Another thing that interests me is if they use this technique in other ancient culture that would be awesome; because who knows they might find links between these cultures. Wouldn’t that be amazing we could see where, how and whom these ancient peoples traded with and what they ate that was in common with each other. Along with who knows what these others cultures may have in their mouth fossils lol; maybe they could have something that hasn’t been around in centuries. That would be awesome to catalog and place in the histories and scientific books for future generations of scientists and doctors. And who knows it may resurface and learning from these ancient skeletons we maybe able to figure out how it affected these ancient peoples and educate people on what may happen to them with this disease, virus, or bacterium.
ReplyDeleteThis was an extremely interesting article. These fossilized microbes are pretty amazing. It makes me wonder what other amazing things they will be capable of figuring out based on these new findings. As Mariah previously had pointed out, I wonder if things like this will be capable of helping in murder investigations. There are so many unsolved mysteries and I wonder if this could be of any help. Anastasia also brought up a good point; if the microbes in the mouth were able to be preserved and can tell so much, it causes us to wonder if any other parts of a decaying body will hold onto microbes. If they can, we could be able to tell if a person died from a disease or whatnot. Discoveries like this are essential to life and death as well. I also find it comical that finding this amount of plaque was from not brushing their teeth and they could see that…I wonder if people nowadays who don’t brush their teeth will have it on there forever and people in the future will judge them for having not brushed their teeth.
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