Oldest Evidence of Life on Earth Possibly Found in Australian Rocks

[Judi Lynn]

By Tia Ghose, Senior Writer | May 9, 2017 11:00am ET


Ancient rocks found in a remote stretch of Western Australia may contain the world's oldest known evidence of life on land, a new study finds.

The 3.48-billion-year-old rocks are part of an area known as the Dresser Formation, located in Pilbara, Australia. During Earth's early years, the region might have been a volcanic caldera (a volcanic crater often resulting from an eruption) on a small island dotted with hot springs and ponds that were teeming with microbial life, said study lead author Tara Djokic, a doctoral candidate in geosciences at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

Djokic and her colleagues found signs of microbial life embedded in rocks that form around hot springs, as well as in deposits in the ancient hot springs themselves.

The findings hint that early life may have gotten its start in hot springs on land, as opposed to deep inside ocean hydrothermal vents, as is commonly believed, Djokic told Live Science. [In Images: The Oldest Fossils on Earth]

More:
http://www.livescience.com/59025-oldest-evidence-for-life-found-in-australia.html?utm_source=notification

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Quebec: Between 3.77 and 4.28 billion years

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/mar/01/worlds-oldest-fossils-found-canada-say-scientists-quebec-haematite-377bn-428bn-years

[Jim__]

2. The Australian story is actually referring to life on land.

The Quebec story is about underwater life.

I know, the headline says "life on earth." But the first sentence in the article refers to life on land:

Ancient rocks found in a remote stretch of Western Australia may contain the world's oldest known evidence of life on land, a new study finds.

I don't think the 2 stories actually disagree.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Thanks for clearing it up. I skimmed both to try to find the discrepancy and you have it. . . nt

[OxQQme]

4. Does this infer that humans emerged from this discovery?

Out of the chaotic mud and on, eventually, to twitter?
Newts? Tadpoles?
Or do our genes come from elsewhere?

[Rhiannon12866]

5. I just read another story on this. Fascinating find!

Thanks for posting!

Researchers discover first evidence of life on land

Fossil evidence of early life discovered decades ago in old hot spring deposits in the Pilbara area of Western Australia is expected to shed more light on the evolution of early life on Earth.

After making a fresh analysis of the fossil, researchers estimated that the fossil evidence dates back almost 3.48 billion years. The estimated date of the fossil extends the previous known evidence of life at land-based hot springs on our planet by nearly 3 billion years.

Fossilized stromatolites, rock structures built by microorganisms, were discovered in Pilbara deposits in the 1970s. The researchers also estimated that the fossil was actually part of a prehistoric volcano.

Separately, a new study by a team of researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has tried to describe how electrical energy naturally generated at the sea floor might have given rise to life.

http://perfscience.com/content/2145549-researchers-discover-first-evidence-life-land