The extremely cold and arid conditions of Antarctica make it uniquely positioned to investigate fundamental questions regarding the persistence of life in extreme environments. Within the McMurdo Dry Valleys and surrounding mountain ranges are multiple ancient relict lakes, paleolakes, with lacustrine deposits spanning from thousands to millions of years in age. Here we present data from light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, electron dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, and radiocarbon dating to catalog the remarkable range of life preserved within these deposits. This includes intact microbes and nanobacteria-sized cocci, CaCO₃ precipitations consistent with biogenic calcium, previously undescribed net-like structures, possible dormant spores, and long-extinct yet exquisitely preserved non-vascular plants. These images provide an important reference for further microbiome investigations of Antarctic paleolake samples. In addition, these findings may provide a visual reference for the use of subsurface groundwater microbial communities as an analog for paleolake subsurface water on planets such as Mars.

南极极度寒冷和干旱的条件使它处于独特的位置，可以研究有关极端环境中的生命持久性的基本问题。在麦克默多干旱谷和周围山脉中，有多个古老的遗迹湖，古湖和湖床沉积物，其历史可追溯到数千年到数百万年。在这里，我们介绍了来自光学显微镜，扫描电子显微镜，电子弥散X射线光谱和放射性碳测年的数据，以对这些矿床中保存的显着生命范围进行分类。这包括完整的微生物和纳米细菌大小的球菌CaCO ₃与生物钙，先前未描述的网状结构，可能的休眠孢子以及长期灭绝但保存完好的非维管植物一致的降水。这些图像为进一步研究南极古薄片样品的微生物组提供了重要参考。此外，这些发现可能为使用地下地下水微生物群落作为类似火星等行星上的古湖地下水的类似物提供视觉参考。