This species was originally discovered in crumbling marble in the Moscow Kremlin; it has also been found in a soda lake in Buryatia.

This species was discovered in scrapings from deteriorating marble monuments in the crypts of the Moscow Kremlin.

[2][3] It was originally named M. murata in its 2005 species description by Russian Academy of Sciences microbiologist Yury Alexandrovich Trotsenko [ru] and colleagues,[2] but was renamed in 2011 to M.

[7] Another strain, named Bur 1, was isolated from a soda lake in Khilganta [ru], Buryatia, Russia.

[10] In 2013, INRS microbiologist Richard Villemur and colleagues added their newly described species M. nitratireducenticrescens and M. frappieri to this clade based on 16S rRNA analysis as well.