Given how many times claims such as these have been brought under question, and how easy it is to make a mistake in this discipline, a single, uncorroborated publication is insufficient evidence.
Truly extraordinary claims require truly extraordinary evidence, and this one smells fishy, too. [1]
> Our interpretation
of the phylogenetic tree constructed from 16S rRNA
sequences (fig. 1b and SI table 3) suggests that isolates
41_AG11AC7 and 46_AG11AC9a are likely Staphylococcus
species, which are not known to sporulate and are also
common microorganisms on the human skin.
> The authors also fail to present negative control
sequences to confirm that the DNA sequences presented
within this study are not the results of laboratory or
reagent contamination, rather than contamination that
likely occurred in 1995
They didn't even do any control runs to calibrate their experiment! Sounds like junk science to me.
There are colonial organisms over 40,000 years old.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest-living_organis...
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/268/5213/1060
http://www.extremescience.com/OldestLivingThing.htm