Thursday, November 14, 2013

Oldest signs of life on Earth found'

Scientists discover potentially oldest signs of life on Earth – 3.5 billion-year-old microbe traces in rocks in Australia

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10445788/Oldest-signs-of-life-on-Earth-found.html

Scientists have discovered possibly the earliest signs of life on Earth – remains of bacteria that are almost three-and-a-half billion years old – in a remote region of north-west Australia.

Evidence of the complex microbial ecosystem was found in sedimentary rocks in the remote Pilbara region in Western Australia, an area which contains some of the world's oldest rock formations.

..."These microbial mats could be seen by a Mars rover... It also helps with our understanding of when life first evolved and what sort of environment it evolved in and putting firm dates on when some pretty important things happened. Ultimately, we are looking for when that soup of chemicals became something that could be called life." The findings have been published in the journal Astrobiology.

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