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National Geographic Teams have found new fossil from the dawn of Earth.

National Geographic Finds Oldest Life on Earth

This May Be the Oldest Known Sign of Life on Earth

Found embedded in crystal, the structures seem to be fossils formed around hydrothermal vents as much as 4.28 billion years ago.



By Nadia Drake

PUBLISHED MARCH 1, 2017

Stalks of iron-rich minerals, each a fraction the size of an eyelash, may be evidence of the earliest life-forms to inhabit the newborn planet Earth. The tiny hematite tubes are as much as 4.28 billion years old, according to the scientists announcing the find, and they are stunningly similar to structures produced by microbes living around undersea hydrothermal vents.

Discovered in slices of rock recovered from northern Quebec, the microscopic metallic detritus—plus chemical signatures associated with ancient metabolisms—could push back the date at which life arose on Earth. If verified, these fossils would surpass 3.7-billion-year-old microbial mats found in Greenland as the oldest known traces of life.

The microfossils also lend support to the idea that the warm, watery, mineral-rich neighborhoods around submerged vents are prime places for life to emerge, whether on this planet, on the seafloors of icy moons, or elsewhere in the universe.

Pretty under the microscope

But why do i suddenly have a craving for Penne pasta

Weird isn't it, to look at something like that and think, "Grandad?"

Clodhopper;1511661 wrote: Weird isn't it, to look at something like that and think, "Grandad?"


LOL, I had the same thought, but couldn't put it into words.

But I thought I heard someone say, just the other day, that the Earth was only 6,000 years old...

Wandrin;1511697 wrote: But I thought I heard someone say, just the other day, that the Earth was only 6,000 years old...


Slightly more, 4,265 BC IIRC, on a Tuesday afternoon

Bryn Mawr;1511699 wrote: Slightly more, 4,265 BC IIRC, on a Tuesday afternoon


Which is interesting since we now have evidence of civilization in Turkey dating back to 7500 BC, and the Indus valley from 7000 BC, and a few other places.

It gets even more interesting with every discovery.

I wonder if they will try to build a sensor/test for this type of life form and include it in future planetary missions.