{"id":21898,"date":"2024-03-27T09:18:03","date_gmt":"2024-03-27T03:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=21898"},"modified":"2025-04-06T16:05:31","modified_gmt":"2025-04-06T10:35:31","slug":"magentofossils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/magentofossils\/","title":{"rendered":"What are Magentofossils?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>About Magentofossils<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>These are the fossilised remains of magnetic particles created by magnetotactic bacteria, also known as magnetobacteria, and found preserved within the geological records.<\/li>\n<li>What are Magnetotactic bacteria?\n<ul>\n<li>These are\u00a0mostly prokaryotic organisms that arrange themselves along the earth\u2019s magnetic field.<\/li>\n<li>These organisms were believed to\u00a0follow the magnetic field to reach places that had optimal oxygen concentration.<\/li>\n<li>These bacteria contained \u201cnovel structured particles, rich in iron\u201d in small sacs that essentially worked as a compass.<\/li>\n<li>These magnetotactic\u00a0bacteria create tiny crystals made of the iron-rich minerals magnetite or greigite. The crystals help them navigate the changing oxygen levels in the water body they reside in.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What did the study find?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The three-metre-long sediment core from the southwestern Bay of Bengal consisted mainly of \u201cpale green silty clays,\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>Researchers reported\u00a0finding abundant benthic and planktic foraminifera \u2014 single-celled organisms with shells found near the sea bed and free-floating in water.<\/li>\n<li>The microscopy also confirmed the presence of \u2018conventional\u2019 magnetofossils along with giant ones.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>At a depth of\u00a0around 1,000-1,500 m, the Bay of Bengal has a distinctively\u00a0low oxygen concentration.<\/li>\n<li>Analysis of the sediment sample confirmed fluctuations in the monsoon took place as the scientists found particles of\u00a0magnetic minerals from the two distinct geological periods.<\/li>\n<li>The rivers Godavari, Mahanadi, Ganga-Brahmaputra, Cauvery, and Penner, which empty into the Bay of Bengal, played a\u00a0crucial role in the formation of the magnetofossils.<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0nutrient-rich sediment carried in by these rivers provided a sufficient supply of reactive iron, which combined with the available organic carbon in the suboxic conditions of the Bay of Bengal to create a\u00a0favourable environment for the growth of magnetotatic bacteria.<\/li>\n<li>The freshwater discharge from these rivers along with the other oceanographic processes, like\u00a0eddy formation, rendered the oxygen content in these waters that isn\u2019t usually found in other low-oxygen zones.<\/li>\n<li>The scientists also said the presence of the magnetofossils showed that the\u00a0suboxic conditions of the Bay of Bengal persisted for a long time,\u00a0allowing the bacteria to thrive.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1) What are Prokaryotes?<\/h3>\n<p>These are organisms whose cells lack a nucleus and other organelles. Prokaryotes are divided into two distinct groups: the bacteria and the archaea, which scientists believe have unique evolutionary lineages. Most prokaryotes are small, single-celled organisms that have a relatively simple structure.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/science\/goa-scientists-find-50000-year-old-magnetic-fossils-in-bay-of-bengal\/article67993453.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Goa scientists find 50,000-year-old magnetic fossils in Bay of Bengal<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Magentofossils are the fossilised remains of magnetic particles created by magnetotactic bacteria, also known as magnetobacteria, and found preserved within the geological records.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":21899,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}