In May 2019 The Independent and related science coverage said researchers had found ultra-small microbes in the extreme hot springs of Dallol volcano in Ethiopia’s Danakil Depression, one of the harshest places on Earth.
The team reported tiny Nanohaloarchaea-like cells surviving heat near 90°C and extreme acidity around pH 0.25, conditions often compared with early Martian hydrothermal sites, and the study appeared in Scientific Reports.
Later papers debated contamination and mineral look-alikes, but the 2019 claim still pushed Dallol into global habitability debates and put Ethiopian geology on the Mars-analogue map.
Kept as science archive, the Dallol microbe discovery is a dated research marker for Afar extreme environments.
Sources: The Independent, Scientific Reports (PMC)